MOULTRIE – Colquitt County is sending 13 of its wrestlers to Sectional competition, including two who won Region 1-6A championships.
The Packers qualified 12 of their 14 entries in the boys traditional region tournament at Tifton on Saturday.
And freshman London Connell of the Lady Packers will advance after her fourth-place finish at last Friday’s Area tournament at Houston County.
The Packers entered 14 wrestlers in the region tournament and 12 will travel to Valdosta on Saturday for Sectional competition.
The excellent performance at Tift County included two region champions and five runners-up.
Three Colquitt wrestlers turned in third-place performances and two finished fourth.
“I knew we were capable,” said Packers coach Benjy Scarbor. “We wrestled very well.”
Winning region titles were seniors Logan Paradice at 150 pounds and Matthew Dillon at 215.
Taking second-place finishes were sophomore Cruz Grijalva at 126, junior Britton Marshall at 132, sophomore Evan Flowers at 144, senior Russell Flowers at 165 and senior Rafael King at 190.
All five runners-up were defeated in the finals by wrestlers from region champion Camden County.
Third-place finishers were freshman Tommy Davis at 113, freshman Tray Gomez 138 and sophomore Brantley Braswell at 285.
Freshman Ariel Quintero-Zunun at 106 and senior Ramsey Dennis at 175 finished fourth.
The top four finishers in each weight class advance to the Sectional.
The top eight finishers in each weight class at the Sectional will qualify for the Class 6A state tournament to be held Feb. 13-15 at the Macon Centreplex.
Camden County finished first among the six region teams with 292.5 points on Saturday.
The Wildcats won 12 weight classes. The Packers won the other two.
The Packers were second with 206 points and were followed by Richmond Hill, 165.5; Tift County, 158; Valdosta, 153.5; and Lowndes, 97.
Paradice, a two-time state champion won his third region championship and raised his season’s record to 35-0 with his two wins on Saturday.
After receiving a first-round bye, he won with a 20-3 technical fall over Tift County’s Jaxson Hughes and then pinned Camden County’s Waylon Rozier in the first-place match.
“He really wasn’t challenged,” Scarbor said.
Dillon, the defending region champion at 215 who went on to finish third at the state tournament last year, also received a first-round bye and then took an 11-4 decision over Valdosta’s Alfonso McCloud.
In the first-place match, Dillon raised this season’s record to 19-1 with a 16-3 major decision over Camden County’s Caleb Gaskin.
It was the first time Dillon had met Gaskin and the Packer won decisively.
After a first-round bye, Grijalva took a 16-3 major decision over Valdosta’s Tavaris Sharp.
In the first-place match, Grijalva dropped a 9-4 decision to Camden County’s Cane Smolarsky.
Grijalva, who finished fifth in the state last year as a freshman, will take a 25-10 record to the Sectional.
Evan Flowers won a medical forfeit over Ian Stephens of Lowndes before being pinned by former state champion Rod Zow Camden in the first-place match.
After his first-round bye, Marshall won an 11-3 major decision over Richmond Hill’s Gavin Crosby.
He was pinned in the first-place match by Camden County’s Brandon Higgins, but has a 33-12 record this season.
“He has wrestled tough for us all year,” Scarbor said of Marshall, a junior who also was second in the region tournament last year. “He is a hard worker who does all the little things right.”
Russell Flowers won his semifinal match when he pinned Tift County’s Dawson McMillian, but dropped a 7-6 decision to Camden County’s Jamaal Coppedge in the first-place match.
The two had faced off before with Coppedge winning.
“Russell changed some things and was able to make the match closer this time,” Scarbor said.
Russell Flowers is now 31-7 this season.
King pinned Tift County’s Michael Dixon in his semifinal bout, but then was pinned by Camden County’s Ryder Wilder in the first-place match.
Wilder is the son of the Camden County wrestling coach Jess Wilder and is a multiple state champion.
King is 29-13 as he heads to the Sectional.
Davis was a late fill-in for Ben Yingling and earned a berth at the Sectional when he won by a medical default.
“This was good experience for him,” Scarbor said.
Zunun, in his first region tournament, split his four matches, including a 10-7 decision over Tift County’s Levi Green and a 19-10 major decision over Richmond Hill’s Brenden Pulliam.
Brandon Harrell filled in at 120 after wrestling with the junior varsity much of the season and dropped all three of his matches.
“He got some experience,” Scarbor said. “He’ll know what it’s like next season.”
Scarbor said the third-place finish by Gomez was one of the team’s highlights.
He won three of his four matches.
“He came out strong and wrestled real well,” Scarbor said.
Cheveiyo Barber finished fifth at 157, just missing a Sectional berth.
“He’s just a ninth-grader and he got some good experience,” Scarbor said.
Dennis came out late after starring for the Colquitt County football team and had to win a wrestle off with Paul Milligan to earn the trip to the region tournament.
“He is a fast learner,” said Scarbor.
Braswell won his third-place match when, after getting the wind knocked out of him, he quickly came back to pin Richmond Hill’s Blake Whittaker in the Packers final match.
Connell split her two matches at 100 pounds in the girls area tournament and will return to Houston County on Friday for the Sectional.
A freshman who wrestled for the first time this season, Connell won her first area match when she pinned Northside’s Josilyn Duncan.
After being pinned by Breanna Higgins of Camden County in the semifinals, she pinned Wayne County’s Katelyn Collins.
She couldn’t get by Lee County’s Paris Watts in the third-place match and was pinned in the first period.
Aileen Martinez, a freshman wrestling at 130, finished sixth and did not advance, but wrestled six times in the area tournament, winning three.
Marley Armstrong, who joined the wrestling team after the end of the flag football season, split her four area matches.
Colquitt County sent eight wrestlers to the area tournament and Scarbor is encouraged that all will be back next season.