By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
It took a few extra days, but South Effingham’s journey for a wrestling dual state championship three-peat is back on schedule.
The Mustangs swept through the Class 5A Region 1 dual tournament at Greenbrier High School on Monday, Jan. 13, with victories over Lakeside, Greenbrier and a nail-biting 32-30 win over Glynn Academy to advance to the state duals at Lassiter High School beginning Jan. 17.
The state championship will be held on Saturday.
“I don’t think we wrestled very well but we should have room for improvement at state,” SEHS coach Christopher Bringer said. “I think our chances are pretty good (for a third title).”
Bringer said he expected his team to be the top seed in the 16-team field at state with Glynn Academy and Creekview posing as major obstacles in the Mustangs’ championship bid.
A year ago, South beat Glynn in the finals of the region tournament and tangled again with the Red Terrors in a tense state final before winning by breaking a tie score with a 4-3 edge in technical falls.
The Mustangs, who claimed their third straight region title, squeezed past Glynn again Monday. Mayson Young won a decision in the 120-pound weight class with a two-point reversal in the last 18 seconds of the final match.
Two matches earlier, at 106, Christopher Hardeman trailed 8-0 before registering a pin for a key swing in team points.
South won eight of the 14 weight classes against Glynn with Hardeman, Young, Jeremiah Moon (at 126), Emilio Santana (at 132), Alarik Gibson (at 138), Brayden “Bear” Bringer (at 144), Brandon “Moose” Bringer (at 157) and Kevin Steptoe (at 285) all capturing wins.
Moon, a recent addition to the lineup after returning from an injury, got the Mustangs off to a good start with a technical fall victory (six team points).
Gibson’s win was the 100th of his high school varsity career.
The region tournament was originally scheduled for Saturday (Jan. 11) at Greenbrier, but was postponed until Monday because cold weather (including some snow) made driving hazardous during the weekend. Augusta-area schools were closed on Friday (Jan. 10).
The rescheduling of the region tournament now cuts down on recovery time for the Mustangs, who returned to Guyton about 12:30 a.m. early Tuesday morning.
South has a dual match scheduled at New Hampstead on Wednesday (Jan. 15) and will leave Guyton on Thursday for Marietta and Lassiter High School.
“It’s a little frustrating but we’ll get through it somehow,” said Bringer before the region tournament last Sunday in anticipation of the run to state. “Going into last week we knew we’d have to stay ready for whatever happened.”
