About The Sylvania times. (Sylvania, Ga.) 2022-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 7, 2024)
thesylvaniatimes.com The Sylvania Times Wednesday, February 7, 2024 - Page 11 GAMECOCKS TAKE SIX INDIVIDUAL WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS Senior Jemiah Stewart (190) raises his arms after picking up the area championship and his 100th career win (photo by Nikki McFarland) Leading the tournament with six individual championships, the SCF1S Gamecock wrestling team of Griffen Greene still saw its five year stranglehold on the Area Traditional title end as they finished runner- up to McIntosh County Academy 176-164 in the Class A Area 3 traditional tournament last Saturday. The tournament also marked the sixth consecutive season that the Flarold Lee Scott Gymnasium played host to the area tournament. As it has all season, four empty weight classes doomed the overall team score. All fourth place or better SCHS finishers will advance to the Class A Sectional for areas 3,4,5, and 6 this Saturday at Social Circle High School. Winning their second consecutive area titles were seniors Ryder Rankin (138) and David McFarland (157). McFarland was also runner-up in 2021-22 and 2020-21. Rankin defeated Clayton Stripling of ECI 9-4 in the semifinal and then Jorge Jimenez of Bryan County 13-12 for the title. McFarland got a bye into the championship, recording a pin over Jaden Handsom of ECI for the gold. With his win McFarland picked up his 153rd career win to pass Zane PowelF’s 152 (2003- 07) for the top spot in SCHS history. Powell also won a pair of area titles. Both Newman and McFarland have 39 wins this season. Winning their first titles were a pair of freshmen (Jason Newman at 126 and Wyatt Sowell at 144), a junior (Isaac Maust at 150)), and a senior (Jemiah Stewart at 190). Newman took wins over Jesse Hirschy of ECI (pin) and Tyshawn Holland of MCA (21-12) while Sowell got a forfeit in the semifinals and recorded a pin over ECI’s Jacob McBride in the finals. Maust pinned Bryan County’s Maysen Lee and, for the title, pinned MCA’s Christian Ward. Stewart, whose two wins on the day pushed him to 100 for his career, won by disqualification over Trevor Wells of Bryan County (Stewart was up 17-11 at that point) qtig previous career record holder for wins was Zane Powell and won by ptn over MCA’s Waylon Grtfftn. Stewart who was 152 _59 between the seasons 2003-04 and 2006-07. was the 285 runner-up in his freshman and sophomore seasons. Senior Jason Zheng (165) got his second consecutive area runner-up medal. In the championship bout with ECI’s Gage Gay he was pinned in the third period up 13-9 at the time. Senior Bo Doss (a runner-up last year) was third at 132. Junior Kody Cochran (215) was fourth and sophomore Brody Taylor (175) was fifth. The top four finishers advance to the Class A state sectionals at Social Circle this Saturday and from there the top six finishers advance to the state finals in Macon on February 15-17. On the day in the local gym SCHS had six champions, Bryan County four, MCA three, and ECI one. Behind the 176 of MCA and the 164 of SCHS were Bryan County with 159, ECI with 141.5, Metter with 41, and Savannah High with 19. Left: Claiming Area 3-A championships Saturday were Front row: Jason Newman (126), Ryder Rankin (138) and Wyatt Sowell (144) Back row: Jemiah Stewart (195), David McFarland (157), and Isaac Maust (photo by Nikki McFarland) Right: Honored prior to the medal round were the seniors on this year's team. They are. Front row: Jemiah Stewart, David McFarland, and Jason Zheng. Back row: Bo Doss, Ben Warren, and Ryder Rankin (photo by Nikki McFarland) Left: The 2023-24 wrestling Gamecocks are - Front row Gabi Greene and Justin Pearce. Second row: Coach John Maust, Brody Taylor, Lance Daniel, Jason Newman, David McFarland, Jason Zheng, Ben Warren, Coach Bo Viness, and Coach Griffen Greene. Back row: Kody Cochran, Bo Doss, Wyatt Sowell, Jemiah Stewart, Ryder Rankin, Isaac Maust, and Joshua Oglesby (photo by Nikki McFarland) THE REGION BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT, GYMS, THE HORN AND WRESTLING RECORDS AROUmi Burton Kemp Unless otherwise noted all articles in Sports are written by Burton Kemp, Sports Editor There will be a rarity next Tuesday in the Harold Lee Scott Gymnasium. SCHS will be hosting a round of a region basketball tournament. By virtue of its third place finish in the regular season race, the SCHS Lady Gamecocks qualified to host the four games of the first round (the 3 v. 6 and 4 v. 5 boys and girls contests) of the Region 3-A D1 tournament. Starting times for the games were determined at a region meeting on Monday after the Sytvania Times’ sports deadline. In fact, as the girls game not involving SCHS was Savannah High against Woodville-Tompkins, the SCHS athletic hierarchy was planning to see if it was possible for that game to be played in Savannah. After day one the tournament resumes in Metter. Back on December 4, 1999 what is now called the Scott Gymnasium opened for basketball play. A Tyrone Mingle lay-up with just :04 remaining gave the Red and White a 37-35 win over Swainsboro after the Lady Gamecocks committed 33 turnovers and went 11-28 from the foul line in a 37-32 loss. For their first seasons in the new dwelling the Gamecocks of Scott went 4-20 while the Lady Gamecocks of Telly Hall-Wright went 16-11, were 2AAA runners-up, and earned their first playoff spot in a decade. They lost their opening playoff game by a 64-30 count to Harris County. Both teams went 1-24 for the 2000-2001 season. Sunday I read with interest a column that I wrote in The Telephone on December 2, 1999 about the upcoming first game in the new gym. It was entitled “Cagers Eager to exit ‘Dump’.” I now feel bad about the way I talked about that old place. But, by 1999 the old one-sided gym was in a sad state, especially what we called The Dungeon. That was the “dressing rooms” under the stands. Because the new gym was coming, not much was done relative to the old gym. Practice continued in the old gym afterwards, but there was no up-keep and the entire thing fell i: The Dungeon roof began to leak. Little more than a decade later, it came down. I did not really bemoan it. Now that I have written a lot more history relative to the old gym, and now that I see how poorly our current soon tng tell 'into disrepair, filled with rats and the gym compares with others around the area, I more appreciate that first one. Well into the 1960s that old gym was considered nice. Throughout its first decade and a half of existence it frequently hosted region tournaments, not just our region but others. We no longer host region tournaments. Our gym, to quote a past administrator, is “nonfunctioning” with a crowd in it. It is well-kept and looks very nice, and we did make some very, very, nice improvements to it over the past year. Still the stands are on the court and there are few of them. Oh well A full house in the old place was not a problem at all. For the foreseeable future, we have what we have. We all know that I am big with numbers. Wrestling numbers are a f ood thing to follow. David McFarland ecame the all time career leader in wrestling wins Saturday as he recorded his 153rd. He passed Zane Powell’s 152. An interesting thing pops out when you look at the list of the 17 young men who have achieved the honor of 100 wins. There are three sets of brothers. Both McFarland and Powell have siblings on the list. McFarland is joined by older brothers d by oJ Holden Driggers (114), and Luke McFarland (109). Powell is joined by older brother Caleb Powell (102). The other brother duo is James Crews (122) and Justin Crews (101). Twelve times in our history a wrestler has won at least 40 matches in a season. Nine of those times have been by one of the aforementioned brothers. Who are the others with at least 100 career wins who don’t have another family member on the list? They are Vasquez Lonon (112), Matthew She ley (107), Omer Lariscy (107), Carson Ellis (107), Ryder Rankin (105), Cody Thompson (103), Brad Waters (102), Dusty Reddick (100), Griffen Greene (100), and the newest, Jemiah Stewart (100). Remember that there was baseball earlier this week. No more at home until February 28. There is home tennis tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. There is home soccer Friday and a region match on February 22. Oh yeah, there is home basketball this Friday and next Tuesday. See you somewhere.
