After taking third place in state duals, Packers set sights on individual titles

Published 9:30 pm Monday, February 1, 2021

MOULTRIE – Benjy Scarbor is justifiably proud of the school records his teams have set in each of his four seasons as Colquitt County’s head wrestling coach.

The latest came last Saturday when the Packers finished third in the GHSA’s state duals competition held at Parkview. It was the highest a Colquitt County team has finished since the Georgia High School Association began state team dual competition in 2007.

As one of the eight teams in the finals, the Packers quickly dispatched Mountain View 58-17, but then fell to the West Forsyth team under former Colquitt County coach Evan Goff, 38-31.

But Colquitt regrouped and downed Archer 37-28 and Lowndes 45-33 to secure the third-place finish.

The Packers had to rally to win their last two.

Against Archer, the score was tied 28-28 when Ethan Sellers took a 5-2 decision over Antwan Verdell at 132 and Nathanial Taylor won by fall over Logan Maxey to send the Packers to the third-place match against Region 1 foe Lowndes.

With three matches remaining, the Vikings led 33-30.

Sellers brought the Packers to a tie with a 3-0 decision over Domnik Iverson-Medina and Taylor put the Packers into the lead when he won when Ethan Gilbert was injured.

Michael Bledsoe clinched it when he pinned Dustin Sherhouse at 145.

“A lot of dual matches are roller-coasters, you just have to hang on for the ride,” Scarbor said. “But we fought through.

“And it helped out that we have been wrestling tough competition all year.”

Scarbor had hoped to get another shot at Camden County, which won its seventh-straight state duals championship.

The Wildcats defeated the Packers 50-19 in the Region 1-7A finals, but Scarbor said his team had several chances to make it closer.

He did note that the Packers’ 19 points against Camden County were more than the 18 combined points Archer, Lowndes and West Forsyth managed against the Wildcats in the state championships.

Camden lost just four matches in the championships.

And as much as he and his ascending Packers would like to celebrate their 18-4 duals record and enjoy the prominence of the state trophy at the high school, Scarbor knows there is still much work to be done this season.

The Region 1-7A individual championships will be held Saturday at Lowndes with wrestlers from Camden County, Colquitt County, Lowndes and Tift County going at each other.

The top three wrestlers in each weight class will advance to the state traditional championships to be held on Feb. 12-13 in Macon.

Scarbor is hoping “quite a few” of his wrestlers will qualify to go to the state meet.

“Most of them have a year of experience,” Scarbor said. “And they’ve all got a few good weapons, something that is dangerous, so they are always in the match.”

Three Packers who are especially expected to head to Macon are Sellers, who wrestles at 126 and 132; Taylor, at 138; and Austin Paradice, who wrestled at both 145 and 152 in the state dual championships.

All three went 4-0 at Parkview.

Paradice had strong performance.

He won by a fall over Jordan Eccleston of Mountain View in the Packers first dual while wrestling at 145. Against West Forsyth, he competed at 152, and won a 9-0 major decision over Christian Walker.

Scarbor penciled Paradice in at 145 against Archer and he opened the match with a 14-3 major decision over Florin Myndresku.

At 152 against Lowndes, he also took the mat first and needed only 1:26 to win by fall over the Vikings’ Riley Price.

“I used him against the other team’s best wrestler,” Scarbor said. “If their toughest kid was at 145, I used him at 145. If their best wrestler was at 152, I used him at 152.”

The rest of the team that the Packers sent out in last Saturday included Eric Hanson at 106, Gabe Freeman at 113, Samir Perdomo at 120, Jayson Brown at 132, Nelson Salaz at 160, Jesus Grijalva at 170, Travis Summers at 182, Ga’Bril Wallace at 195, James Bledsoe at 220 and Collin Crosby and Vendarion Knighton at 285.

The individual championships also should be closely contested among wrestlers from the four region teams, all of which qualified for the final eight at state duals.

Scarbor said there will be some weight classes that have four outstanding wrestlers, but only three will travel to Macon.

“We know there are going to be some battles,” he said. “And we’ve still got room for improvement.”