Suwanee Schools Come Up Big in Wrestling

With the success of the wrestling programs at Collins Hill, North Gwinnett and Peachtree Ridge, Suwanee could be considered  Georgia's "wrestling capital."

Collins Hill, North Gwinnett and Peachtree Ridge placed a total of 13 finalists and seven champions at the Class 5A  Section A wrestling tournament Saturday at Central Gwinnett High.

Of the seven champions, Collins Hill had the most with four.  "I felt we had a great tournament.  Getting 14 through to the state tournament was the big thing," Collins Hill coach Josh Stephen said. "I feel we are right where we need to be.  In the end, it's good to win sectionals, but we're trying to win state."

For  the Eagles, senior Bazell Partridge won the 125 lb. weight class by beating Clearance Williams of Valdosta 10-2.  Sophomore Spencer Rickman was taken to overtime before he could notch a 5-3 decision to win the 130 lb. weight class over Shiloh's Ryan Mosley. 

In his match, with about 30 seconds to go,  Mosley scored a reversal to tie the match at 3 at the end of regulation.  "He took me down in the third period, which brought it to overtime, so I decided to take him down in the overtime," Rickman said. And Rickman did just that. 

Junior Steven Bradtmueller defeated Trey Horton of Peachtree Ridge to win the 140 lb. weight class, and senior Mac Bennett beat Zimmie Mack of Tift County in a tight one by the score of 3-1 to win the 189 lb Class. 

Other Collins Hill wrestlers had a solid tournament even though they didn't come out on top.  Senior Andrew Krawulski made it to the finals of the 152 lb. weight class before losing to North Gwinnett's Tony Garren 5-2, and Matthew Connell made it to the finals of the 171 lb. weight class before falling to Peachtree Ridge sophomore Tsvetomir Petrushev. 

According to an article in the Gwinnett Daily Post, Petrushev, the son of Bulgarian immigrants,  is described by his coach, Danny Sinnott, as "tough." It shows in the fact that he is still undefeated at 26-0.

In addition to Petrushev's dominance, senior Michael Chapman is now 45-0 after prevailing over Nick Holbert of Collins Hill in the 215 lb. weight class.  By the way,  Holbert himself is now 45-3. 

Senior Bradley Heugh was also a finalist before losing to Devante Winslow of Westlake.  "I was pleased.  Overall, we wrestled pretty well," Peachtree Ridge voach Sinnott said.  "There were some matches that we could have wrestled better, but overall, we wrestled pretty well as a team.  We're excited about the upcoming week with all eight of our wrestlers going through to state."

North Gwinnett also did Suwanee proud.   As mentioned earlier,  sophomore Tony Garren captured the 152 lb. weight class by beating Collins Hill's Andrew Krawulski 5-2.  With 17 seconds left in the match and Garren owning a 3-1 lead, the North Gwinnett sophomore scored a takedown.  Krawulski scored a point on an escape at the end, but Garren prevailed.

According to the GHSA format, the top eight wrestlers from each weight class move on to next week's state tournament, and the one who finishes in ninth place is an alternate.

Here  are some of the at least 30 wrestlers from the Suwanee schools who will move on to state:

Brett Byerly of North Gwinnett finished sixth in the 215 lb. weight class.    Moore of Peachtree Ridge finished in fourth place in the  103 lb. weight class.  Sean Russell of Collins Hill finished third in that same weight class, and he will be headed to state along with the other 13 Eagle wrestlers. 

Dalton Daniel of North Gwinnett finished second in the 119 lb. weight class, losing to Parkview's Rob Kayne in the finals.

Other wrestlers from Suwanee's "Big Three" that qualified for next week's state tournament include Mac Shiver (125 lb.) of Peachtree Ridge,  Brandon Smith (130 lb.) of Peachtree Ridge, Joseph Doyague (135 lb.) of Collins Hill,  Andrew Harrison (145 lb.) of Peachtree Ridge, Dustin Ellis (145 lb.) of Collins Hill,  Michael Spikes (160 lb.) of Collins Hill,  John Roark (171 lb.) of North Gwinnett,  Carl Rider (189 lb.) of North Gwinnett, Zach Carmin (275 lb.) of Collins Hill, and Hunter Franklin (103 lb.) of North Gwinnett.  

In other high school sports:

Peachtree Ridge's boys swim team edged Parkview, 247-244, on Saturday to win the state Class AAAAA swimming and diving title at Georgia Tech.

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