Now in its fifth season, the Bryan County wrestling program had its most successful area/sectional traditional tournament to date last Saturday when Coach Ryan Collier’s team had a record five wrestlers advance to this Saturday’s Class A region tournament at Jeff Davis High School.

Richmond Hill also had a successful day in the Class 6A area tourney as it had nine wrestlers (per TrackWrestling.com and the GHSA) finish among the top four to earn a spot in Saturday’s tournament which will be held at Valdosta High School.

The top eight wrestlers in each weight class in the region tournament advance to the State Traditional Championship Finals which will be held at the Macon Centreplex Feb. 13-15 for all classes. The traditional tournament is where individual champions are crowned.  

Leading the way for the Redskins was Jason Newman who had a second-place finish at 144 pounds. Third-place finishes were earned by Jason Fail (113) and Jayden Lee (126) while Riley Shuman (120) and William Patrick (132) earned the right to advance with fourth-place finishes. Freshman Gunner Ennis (165) finished fifth in his weight class to earn alternate status.

Richmond Hill, a long-time state power, had one first-place finisher as Carter Anderson dominated the field at 113 pounds. Brayden Stallings took second at 138 while Gavin Crosby (132), Mat Josefik (150), Noah Hampton (165) and Lucas Raymond (175) finished in third-place. Earning the right to advance by finishing fourth were Josh Pacheco (126), Leighton Steigelman (190) and Blake Whitaker (285).

Finishing fifth to advance as alternates were Kingston Mosely (120), Ethan Pitts (144) and Aiden Gorlesky (215). Alternates get the right to wrestle should any of the top four finishers be unable to wrestle.

Lee will be looking to become the first Bryan County wrestler to make it to the state finals for the second time. The senior four-sport letter winner made it as a sophomore two years ago. The first Bryan County wrestler to qualify for state finals was Tarrell Singleton. Last year the Redskins had Raul Parrish, Carlos Arias and Jett Lewis advance. Colton Gunter also qualified two years ago.