RABBITTOWN — Despite sporting one of its youngest teams ever, the North Hall wrestling team has not missed a beat in the early going of the 2016-17 season.
The Trojans put on a dominating display Friday and Saturday at the Hall County Championships at the East Hall gym to capture the annual event.
North Hall went a perfect 6-0 in the dual tournament outscoring its six opponents by a 369-85 margin.
First-year head coach David Nichols said he felt they would be competitive. But with seven freshmen and five sophomores in the starting lineup he was not expecting the outcomes he witnessed.
"We are so young but these kids have really worked hard as a group and they have a lot of talent. But you don't ever expect to have as dominating a showing as we did," said Nichols, who was an assistant with the Trojans last season.
North Hall opened with a 48-33 win over Gainesville and then began its assault on the rest of the field. The Trojans beat Flowery Branch 67-6 and Chestatee 55-15 to close out Friday's action. They kept it going on Saturday beating East Hall 64-9, Johnson 69-6, and West Hall 66-16 to complete the sweep.
"The real key I thought was the third period. We had a lot of close individual matches but our guys really toughened up when it was close and pulled out most of those matches," Nichols said. "They just stepped up when things were on the line."
Junior John Pedraza at 126-pounds led the way with six wins, all by pin. Junior Taylor Gilleand at 145 and sophomores Matthew Glenn at 113 and Bryson Smith at 132 also went undefeated. Glenn had five pins and a major decision. The four all captured Hall County Championships at their weight classes.
Three more Trojans, all freshmen, could have earned individual honors but split time at two weight classes. Jamie Hudson and Logan Hawthorne both went undefeated. Hudson (152 and 160) went 5-0 at 152 while Hawthorne was 3-0 at both 182 and 195 with six pins. Seth Carlton was 3-0 at 170 and 2-1 at 182 for the tournament.
"Those three really impressed me and were tremendous team players. They moved around so that we could matchup for the team win," Nichols said.
Chestatee finished second with a 5-1 record, its only loss to North Hall. East Hall took third and Gainesville was fourth.
Here are the individual Hall County Champions, by weight class and school:
106: Kenley Chadwick, Flowery Branch
113: Matthew Glenn, North Hall
120: Danny Franco, Johnson
126: John Pedraza, North Hall
132: Bryson Smith, North Hall
138: Eugenio Manilla, West Hall
145: Taylor Gilleand, North Hall
152: Mathew McClellan, Chestatee
160: Blake Nix, East Hall
170: Everett Fouts, West Hall
182: Anthony Slater, West Hall
195: Ricardo Vazquez, West Hall
220: Anthony Woodall, Flowery Branch
285: Keith Harris, Gainesville
