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Team wrestles County championship away from Rome
Feb 26, 2004 8:00 AM
By Stefan Eady - Faculty
“We weren’t supposed to do beat them,” Coach Larry Johnson said about Darlington’s wrestling team’s win over Rome at the Floyd County Duals in late January. “Rome is a bigger team, and when they weren’t in the tournament last year because of a scheduling problem, everyone said that if they had been there they’d have won.”
The 40-39 win over Rome was definitely the hardest of the season. “We wrestled Rome in December and a number of our kids were hurt and sick so they beat us pretty good and expected to do the same in the County match,” Johnson said. But the team was well and focused, enabling it to dash Rome’s hopes for a win.
The event ended with a three-way tie for first place between defending champion Darlington, Pepperell, and Rome. In the end Darlington broke the tiebreaker when Pepperell was eliminated on a penalty and Rome lost out on the fifth criteria. All three teams went 3-1 overall in the tournament.
Caleb Hufstetler, senior, was first at 135, Brian Eberhard, junior, was first at 140, and Jacob Cook, senior, was first at 171. Multiple winners were Max Hinton (119), senior, Hufstetler, Eberhard, Steve Owens (152), junior, Cook, Tyler Wilkinson (189), senior, and Lee Spradlin (275), junior.
Darlington went on to come in sixth in the Area 4-AA Duals tournament. “The five teams ahead of us were the five teams in our region that were all ranked in the top 10 in the state,” Coach Larry Johnson said. Darlington nearly upended two of the state-ranked teams, No. 10 Armuchee and No. 6 Rockmart, losing to Armuchee 48-22 and 45-30 to Rockmart.
“We’re getting better, but we still have to keep working if we want to be one of those ranked teams,” Johnson said. Darlington qualified five wrestlers to go to the AA State tournament. To qualify for state, a wrestler must place in the top four in each weight category.
In the regular season, Darlington only lost three head-to-head matches in the area, those being to No. 4 Calhoun, Rockmart, and Armuchee.
The 40-39 win over Rome was definitely the hardest of the season. “We wrestled Rome in December and a number of our kids were hurt and sick so they beat us pretty good and expected to do the same in the County match,” Johnson said. But the team was well and focused, enabling it to dash Rome’s hopes for a win.
The event ended with a three-way tie for first place between defending champion Darlington, Pepperell, and Rome. In the end Darlington broke the tiebreaker when Pepperell was eliminated on a penalty and Rome lost out on the fifth criteria. All three teams went 3-1 overall in the tournament.
Caleb Hufstetler, senior, was first at 135, Brian Eberhard, junior, was first at 140, and Jacob Cook, senior, was first at 171. Multiple winners were Max Hinton (119), senior, Hufstetler, Eberhard, Steve Owens (152), junior, Cook, Tyler Wilkinson (189), senior, and Lee Spradlin (275), junior.
Darlington went on to come in sixth in the Area 4-AA Duals tournament. “The five teams ahead of us were the five teams in our region that were all ranked in the top 10 in the state,” Coach Larry Johnson said. Darlington nearly upended two of the state-ranked teams, No. 10 Armuchee and No. 6 Rockmart, losing to Armuchee 48-22 and 45-30 to Rockmart.
“We’re getting better, but we still have to keep working if we want to be one of those ranked teams,” Johnson said. Darlington qualified five wrestlers to go to the AA State tournament. To qualify for state, a wrestler must place in the top four in each weight category.
In the regular season, Darlington only lost three head-to-head matches in the area, those being to No. 4 Calhoun, Rockmart, and Armuchee.
