Mat Canes Earn Trip to State

The ‘Cane wrestlers traveled to Lamar High School last weekend and placed second in the Region 4AA Tournament, which qualified them to go to the State Duals for the fourth straight year in a row.

The team lost the championship match to Morgan 43-28, however, Morgan was only up 31-28 when the ‘Canes had to forfeit two weight classes, which if they had won they could have taken the top spot.

The team had to forfeit the 220 weight class due to Timmy Postlethwait being out with a shoulder injury. Postlethwait returned to practice Monday and was to be back competing Wednesday, and expected to participate in the state tournament. The team just simply doesn’t have a wrestler in the 106 weight class.

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After getting a bye in the first round the team defeated Lamar and then lost to Morgan, after which they defeated Crawford County 54-25 to secure second place in the region.

Head Wrestling Coach Andy Rewis said, “I was proud of the way we competed. We had to win in our last match against Crawford in order to advance to the state. We placed eighth in the state last year and our goal is to do even better this year. It’s a great accomplishment for our kids to advance on to the state tournament.

This will be the fourth year in a row for our seniors, and not many teams can make that claim.”

Oscar Sandoval continues to lead the team with a 41-0 record, followed by Brandon Barger at 35-0, Patrick Clement at 46-1 and Postlethwait at 37-5.

Coach Rewis said, “Some other kids are starting to come on for us including Justin Bradley who is 38-10 after he moved up from the 103 weight class, in which he was the region champion last year, to the 113 weight class. Victor Bautista is 26-4 and had a big win for us versus Morgan.”

Prior to this weekend the team traveled to Covington last Wednesday, January 4, and defeated Eastside 66-14 and Miller Grove 40-37.

The team was to wrestle at home Wednesday, Jan. 11, versus Greene and Newton Counties, too late to report the results in this edition.

This Friday and Saturday, Jan. 13 and 14, the team will travel to the Macon Coliseum to participate in the AA State Duals Tournament.

Action is scheduled to get underway at noon on Friday, and resume at 9 a.m. on Saturday.