From Chris Enslow

Last night was tough, but we continue to make strides in the right direction.  We, again, picked up some wins that maybe the other team wasn't anticipating.

In our 1st match of the night we squared off with Mt. Zion.  We won half of our matches with the varsity going 3-3.  Kean Pettus (135) won by pin; Josh Ivey (103) and Kenny Doll (145) both picked up wins via decision.  We also wrestled a couple of exhibition matches while waiting for Northgate and Central to finish.  Chris Enslow (140) won a decision against Mt. Zion's 145.  During the match, Chris finished a beautiful takedown with a hard slam and in the process his opponent's tooth entered Chris' cheek.  This left a nasty hole that had to fixed up.

Next up was Northgate.  We went 2-4 with Northgate and every match ended with a pin.  Josh Ivey (103) and Juan Batista (152) both scored victorious wins via pin.

Finally, we wrapped things up with the night's host, Central.  We split the matches 50-50 with Central going 3-3.  Picking up wins were Josh Ivey (103) and Chris Enslow (140) via pin, and Kenny Doll picked up a default win.

Next up is the Bowden Invitational this weekend.  The tournament will start on Friday at 5pm wrestling the first two rounds, plus the first round of the wrestle-back.  On Saturday the wrestling will resume at 9am and go until the Finals are complete.

Here is a list of the teams competing this weekend.
Adairsville, Bowdon, Calhoun, Callaway, Darlington, Heard County, Lagrange, Landmark Christian, Mt.Zion-Carroll, Model, Newnan, Northgate, Rockmart, St. Francis, Villa Rica, and Whitefield Academy

From Chris Enslow

The Tri @ Heard ended up being a 1 on 1 Dual with Heard County... and with Villa Rica missing two varsity wrestlers from an already depleted lineup... the Dual ended up being more of a exhibition match trying to garner more time on the mats for our young wrestlers. 

On to the results... much like against Carrollton, we ended up stealing 2 matches out of 6, which isn't too bad considering how young we are.  I know I say that a lot, but it's true.  5 of our 6 varsity wrestlers that were wrestling are 1st year wrestlers.  4 of those guys are 9th graders!  Trust me when I say we are building for the future and we will get better each year. 

Anyway, Josh Ivey scored a nice come-from-behind decision victory to start us off in the right direction.  Josh's match was very entertaining because his opponent was noticibly larger than Josh and literally drug Josh around the mat on several occasions and had him some very bad positions, but once again Josh's flexability bailed him out and he scored a nice takedown at the end of the match to win the decision.  Kean Pettus scored the only Villa Rica pin of the night and did so in dominating fashion!  It was apparent that Kean did not like his last several outings as he came out tonight with passion and hunger for a victory.  The passion paid off quickly as Kean scored his pin in less than a minute of action!  For scoring such a quick pin and coming in with obvious passion, I am giving the Fighter of the Night Award to Kean Pettus.  Great job and welcome back, Kean!

Up next is the Carroll County Championships this Saturday at Bowden High School.  Live fights start at 9am so PLEASE come out and support our guys!  You won't be alone because I will be there with you. :)

From Chris Enslow

Well, we only traveled with 6 eligible varsity wrestlers, half of those guys are freshmen in their first year of wrestling. That being said, I'm very proud of the guys for going into Carrollton and stealing 2 varsity victories away from a very talented team. Josh Ivey started the team off with a pin, and Chris Enslow came in a couple of matches later to take a 14-4 major decision in a highly spirited match! After the match concluded, Coach Seeley told me that was the best he has ever seen Chris Enslow wrestle, and it was against a very seasoned Carrollton wrestler. For wrestling his best match ever with tons of passion and heart, I am giving the Fighter of the Night award to Chris Enslow. Great job, Chris!

No time to rest as we have to lick our wounds quick and jump on the bus! We head to Heard tonight! Live Fights start at 5pm, so I hope everyone gets there on time!

From Chris Enslow

Last night went really well for our one and only home match of the season. We hosted Temple and Bremen's B team (Heard did not make it). I even ate dinner at the concession stand last night for the first time. Of course, I first had to ask the lady running the stand if the money was going to the wrestling team... it was, so I ate! :)

Anyway, on to the results. We first matched up with Bremen and we looked GREAT as a team! The varsity guys went 5-2, with the only 2 losses coming from our first year freshmen. Scoring victories via pin were: Finni (171) and Pettus (135). Scoring victories via decision were: Ivey (103), Batista (152), and Enslow (140). Which reminds me... welcome back Juan! I spoke with Juan last night and he did confirm that he is back for the rest of the season. Speaking of returns... Kenny Doll made is return last night (although he didn't wrestle Bremen or Heard) by having a wrestle-off with Holland for the 145 spot. Both guys held strong, but Doll got the victory.

Our match with Temple was really kind of weird due to the weights all being off. I'm not even sure if anyone wrestled an opponent at the same weight. The only 2 that I think were "official" was Holland @ 145 and Batista @ 152, both lost via pin. Finni, who wrestles 171, lost to a much larger 189 opponent. However, the loss came after Finni was taken down and landed on an already injured shoulder. Quite honestly, with a preexisting shoulder injury I don't think he should have been wrestling anyone with that much of a significant weight advantage. Hopefully, he will heal soon and be ready for Carrollton next week. Josh Ivey was up next, and he had to wrestle up, too. His opponent was 112, and the two of them locked horns in a very exciting back-and-forth match. Josh had to come from behind to even the score as time expired sending the match into OT. With Coach Seeley screaming instructions for Josh to score the takedown (side note - in OT the 1st person to score wins - kinda like sudden death) Josh made his move to the center of the mat. Within .000012 seconds of the whistle Josh had a double locked up and finished the takedown for an exciting win!

With that win, I'm giving my Fighter of the Night award to Josh Ivey. It took a lot of heart to come back and get the win against the larger opponent. Honorable mention goes to Pirkle and Gibbs (our 8th graders) as both guys won via pin against Temple. I was a little worried about Connor b/c I saw him bust his rump on ice the night before and didn't think he would be able to wrestle... I bet you thought nobody saw you ;)

Next up is Carrollton next week on the 19th in Carrollton. I hope to see everyone there!