It all came down to a tie-breaking technicality on Jan. 14, for the Putnam County High School (PCHS) boys’ wrestling team.
Over the past two weeks, the GHSA held several dual-meet wrestling state championships to find Georgia’s top high-school wrestling teams.
PCHS made school history Saturday, by hosting rounds one and two of its portion of the tournament at the Eagles’ Nest. After only four years of existence, this represented a huge advancement for the PCHS wrestling program.
The Mat-War Eagles opened the round of 32 against the Union County Panthers. After drawing a starting weight of 150, Brayon Farley fell 9-7 in a close overtime match against Union’s Asa Smith-Foot. Farley then suffered a forfeit against No. 1-ranked Payton Leggat.
The Panthers kept the momentum going by winning the next two weights (7-2 and by pin), to gain an 18-0 lead after four weights. However, the Mat Eagles rose to the challenge.
Putnam fought back and took the next four weights by pinfall to take a solid 24-18 lead. The two teams battled throughout the next four weights, but Putnam stubbornly held on to a 34-31 lead.
With close points, the final match was shaping up to be a real nailbiter, but Putnam’s Armon Webster (144) pinned Colson Lotts in the first period to seal a 40-31 win and move the Mat Eagles forward into the round of 16.
PCHS head coach Joe Hutsell was clearly excited about the comeback and advancement.
“This might be the first time we (as a total program) have been able to overcome such a big deficit. It’s a great sign,” Hutsell stated. “We didn’t panic, stayed together, and cheered one another on. I’ve been waiting for this moment, and it couldn’t have come at a bigger time.”
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the bracket, Brantley County handily defeated The Walker School out of Cobb County by a score of 66-18 to secure advancement to the second round against Putnam.
Round two would begin in the 157-weight class with both brackets having winners. Mark Winslette battled to get the Mat Eagles on the board and took a 1-point victory and a 3-point lead. Then, Cooper Smallwood (165) did not disappoint and pinned Harlon Pruitt to give Putnam an early 9-0 advantage.
It did not last, however, as the Mat-Eagles eventually found themselves in a 36-24 hole with only two matches left. Putnam needed two pins in the 144- and 150-pound weight classes – and both Cristan Hernandez and Brayon Farley delivered! The final team score was 36 apiece.
Spectators and athletes alike waited in tense anticipation as the referee had to refer to the rule book for tie-break criteria. Sub-section letters a, b, c, d, e, f, g, and went by … and still it remained a tie, but “i' would finally shed light on the winner. Subsection I states: “The team having the greater number of points for near-falls shall be declared the winner.”
After slowly counting and referring in detail to the score sheets, the ref finally reached a decision and the count was 17-16 in favor of the Herons of Brantley County.
The Mat-Eagles were understandably devastated to lose by so little, and by a scoring technicality at that. Hutsell himself struggled to contain his passion about how close the team was to victory, but sportsmanship was shown by PCHS, nonetheless.
“That’s the tough thing about sports. There’s always a winner and loser, but you pick yourself up and keep moving forward,” Hutsell said. “Obviously, we wanted to protect our home floor and advance, but it wasn’t in the cards today. This will hurt for a while, but we’ll use it for motivation for the rest of this year and hopefully the offseason.”
Even with such a close and upsetting loss, there remained still more competition for the PCHS Mat Eagles as a girls’ wrestling tournament was scheduled for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The Lady Mat Eagles were scheduled to visit Harris County this past Monday (Jan. 16), for the Queen of the County tourney.
“This 2nd-annual tournament will hold 30 teams from around the state and should be a good gauge of what our ladies will need to do in order to get ready for their traditional tournament (the first weekend of February),” PCHS girls’ team coach Sandra Webb said.