Warriors win first area duals title

For the first time in school history, the White County Warriors walked off the mat last weekend at Cherokee Bluff as Area Duals Champions.

The Warriors won a pair of matches last week at the 7-AAA Area Duals tournament, including knocking off perennial state power North Hall, on the way to winning program's first area championship.

“I knew we had a shot, even after we had some guys not make weight this morning,” WCHS head coach Patrick Lowendick said. “I truly felt like we were the best team here. We put ourselves through some tough ones (matches) earlier in the year against some bigger schools, and all of that was preparation for today.  We'll celebrate this now and use it as a stepping stone for Saturday. We have to win it to move onto Stephens County for the Elite 8.”

The Warriors will host a series of first round matches Saturday morning, beginning with a match against Dawson County, the No. 4 seed from Area 5. Morgan County, the No. 3 team from Area 3 and Pierce County, the No. 2 team from Area 1 were scheduled to meet in the other first round match, but according to Lowendick, Pierce County informed WCHS officials on Tuesday that they were withdrawing from the tournament.

The Warriors need a pair of wins Saturday to move on the Class AAA Elite 8 championship round Jan. 15 at Stephens County High School.

“We started the program in 1999 and been runner-up several times, been third a bunch, but this is a first for us,” Lowendick said. “To do it with a young group is awesome. They get the expectation now of this is where we should be. We've always been close. I'm glad (seniors) Sidney  Sullens and Ashton Pickett get to be a part of it; they've put in the work over the past few years. It's also really exciting for the freshmen because this is be all they know going forward. When you have that mindset of winning, not just doing okay, that's big. I'm excited about the rest of this season, and already looking to see how things will go into the offseason heading into next season.”

Once the duals tournaments are completed the Warriors will set their sights on the area traditional tournament, which will be held in February in Dahlonega.

“We've got two more weeks of this duals stuff, then the entire focus shifts,” Lowendick said. “We'll have some guys go to different weight (classes). Again, having that expectation of being able to compete with anybody,  believing that you deserve to to be there, that weighs a lot, especially in the tough matches.”

In the opening round area tournament, the Warriors took on North Hall, which has won three of the past four Class AAA state duals titles.

“North Hall is a perennial powerhouse,” Lowendick said. “The fact that we are out here doing what we are doing with a bunch of young guys, and we came to play. We had a couple guys not give up pins, and that was the mindset we were looking for coming into the day.”

After the first 13 matches, the Warriors were down 41-35, needing a pin in the 220-pound match between Trenton O'Kelly and North Hall's Ronaldo Laguna.

Down six points, O'Kelly had to have a pin to keep the Warriors' hopes alive. Even if he won by technical fall (five points) or by decision, the Warriors would still come up short.

There wasn't much action in the first period and for most of the second period.

But O'Kelly found an opening in Laguna's defense tactics in the second period  and was able to take him down to the mat and record the pin.

“I knew I had to get a pin,” O'Kelly said. “Honestly, the guy didn't really give me anything through in the first period; all he wanted to do was stall. I was able to do my favorite move; I threw the head lock on him and I got him.”

Lowendick said O'Kelly knew what was at stake and came up huge in a key moment in program history.

“Going last and knowing you have to win for the team is one of the harder things to do in this sport,” Lowendick said. “Coming into this week, we've talked about how mental this is. Obviously, it's very physical, but there is huge mental side to this sport. Knowing what you need to do and not getting  caught up in the moment, not getting too worked up and and just going out there and executing is hard. Trenton going out there and getting a pin, we'll take that all day.”

With the team's deadlocked at 41-41, the match was decided off the mat by the GHSA's tiebreaker, and thankfully, the Warriors came out on top. The match was decided by the criteria in the tie-breaking system: The team having accumulated the greater total number of falls, defaults, forfeits and disqualifications shall be declared the winner.

“We finished the match tied, so it came down to the fifth tiebreaker,” Lowendick said. “Basically, that's the total number of pins. Because they forfeited the match to Sidney Sullens, that gave us one more pin than them.”

The match started out well for the Warriors ad JD Trowell dominated the opening match in the 285-pound division, getting a first period pin. Davin Lightsey needed just 38 second to pin his opponent in the 106-pound match, pushing the lead to 12-0.

After a pin for North Hall, Caden Autry made it with 18-6 with a first period pin. North Hall came up with a pair of pins and a technical fall in the next three matches to take the lead at 23-18, but Jacob Beisterfield recorded a pin with 38 seconds left in the second period in the 145-pound match to take back the lead, 24-23.

North Hall won the 152-pound match, Sullens got the forfeit at 160-pounds to give the Warriors the lead again at 30-29.

After North Hall retook the lead at 35-30, Jeb Robinson came up with a 17-0 technical fall in the 182-pound class for a 35-35 tie with two matches to go.

North Hall won the next match for a 41-35 advantage, setting up the stage for O'Kelly's key win.

Things were much easier in the championship match with Cherokee Bluff, who upset No. 1 seed Lumpkin County in the opening round. The Warriors recorded seven pins on the way to slamming the Bears, 60-24.

Ollie Weiland recorded a 21-second pin in the opening match in the 113-pound class, and then Caden Autry (120), Mason Autry (132), Robinson (182), O'Kelly (220), Trowell (285) and Lightsey (106) all racked up pins against the Bears.

Kane Lowery was up 13-5 in the second period of the 170-pound match when his opponent had to forfeit the match due to an injury. Beisterfield (145) and Sullens (160) both won by forfeit.

“It feels great,” O'Kelly said. “It's the first championship for the White County wrestling program. It feels good to be a part of that.”

Lowendick said the area title was a testament to the work of everyone on the roster.

“We had some trouble to start the day, we had a couple guys miss weight and that always throws a little wrench in the plan,” Lowendick said. “We brought some extra guys, and we've talked about it all season, whether you are the starter or you're No. 2, you are a part of the team. We want to make sure you are doing your part, make sure you pushing everybody, so you are prepared for a moment when it happens. We ended up having to throw two or three guys that came today as extras into the lineup to wrestle and that's a testament to them for stepping up and doing their part.”