The road to Traditional wrestling state titles begins Friday for area teams.
The Area Tournaments will open around the state on Friday and continue through Saturday. The top four finishers in each individual weight class after the two-day event will move on the Sectionals next week.
The northeast Georgia area has three teams -- Buford in Class AAAAA, Jefferson in Class AAAA, and Commerce in Class A -- looking to defend traditional state titles from a year ago. All three recently won 2018 Duals state titles, as well as North Hall in Class AAA.
Area tournaments are spread out with only Commerce hosting an Area tournament in the northeast Georgia area.
In Area 4-A, the Tigers will be joined by Riverside Military Academy and Towns County in a 13-team field.
In Area 4-AA, Banks County and Rabun County will head to Elbert County in a 12-team field. The Leopards are looking for a strong showing but the area does house defending state champion Social Circle, which won the Class AA Duals title two weeks ago.
In Area 4-AAA head to Morgan County. The area has 13 teams, including area teams Dawson County, East Hall, East Jackson, Fannin County, Jackson County, Lumpkin County, North Hall, and Union County. The Trojans, however, are coming off their first-ever Duals state title and are considered an early favorite.
In Area 7-AAAA, Chestatee, West Hall, and White County will head to Marist in an area that has just five teams. In 8-AAAA, St. Pius will play host with Jefferson and Stephens County looking for strong showings in the 6-team field.
Loganvillle will play host to the 7-team field in Area 8-AAAAA, with defending champion Buford headlining a group that also features area teams Floery Branch and Johnson.
Area 8-AAAAAA will head to Dacula with area programs Gainesville, Habersham Central, Lanier, and Winder-Barrow making up most of the 6-team field.
The Sectionals will be held next week -- Feb. 2-3 -- with two sites in each classification, one in the north and one south part of the state.
Unlike the Area meets, northeast Georgia will play host to several Sectionals meets:
Class AAAAAA -- Lanier
Class AAAAA -- Buford
Class AAAA -- Jefferson
Class AAA -- Greater Atlanta Christian
Class AA -- Rockmart
Clas A -- First Presbyterian Day
