By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

It was a dominant day for the Thompson Warriors at the 2019 South Super Sectional wrestling meet held at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery between Friday, Feb. 8 and Saturday, Feb. 9, as the Warriors ended up winning the match and qualifying all 14 of their wrestlers for the state meet later this week.

In addition to Thompson, Oak Mountain also competed in the south meet, qualifying seven wrestlers of its own, while Spain Park competed in the north meet held at the Birmingham CrossPlex and qualified three wrestlers for state.

With the top four wrestlers advancing to the state meet from each weight class, the Warriors made it really easy on themselves with nine first place finishers out of the 14 different weight classes—a lofty accomplishment.

Those winners included Yanni Vines (106), Dylan Lesueur (113), James Latona (120), Chandler Akins (126), Gabe Hixenbaugh (138), Derek Hussey (160), Ashunti Perry (170), Michael Jackson (195) and Isaac McAdams (220).

Each one of those wrestlers finished undefeated in their respective weight class to lead to the strong effort from the Warriors.

Thompson also had five other wrestlers do enough to qualify, including Nathan Roberts, Josiah Campbell, Jeremiah Coney, Tyler Gilson and Will Garrett.

Roberts, Campbell and Coney all finished in second in their respective weight classes, while Coney finished third and Gilson finished fourth.

The dominant effort by the Warriors gave them 303.5 total team points, to completely run away with the team championship, as the next closest team was Hoover with 191 points.

Oak Mountain’s teams, now healthy at the right time, also had one of its best showings of the season and finished fourth in the team standings with 128.5 points.

The Eagles had five top three finishers, including one champion, as well as two fourth place finishers.

That lone winner was Cole Thomas in the 132-pound weight class thanks to two major decision wins, one pin and one decision victory to finish his run undefeated.

Patrick Neal and Sullivan Tipton were Oak Mountain’s two second-place finishers as Neal did so in the 120-pound division, and Tipton in the 126-pound division.

After receiving a bye in the opening round, Neal went on to pick up a major-decision win and a decision win the next two rounds, before losing the first-place match due to a technical fall.

Tipton also received a bye in the first round and followed that with a tech-fall victory and a major-decision victory, before losing the first-place match to Akin via decision.

Jacob Gagnon and Harrison Kinsey finished third for the Eagles in their respective weight classes.

Gagnon did so in the 160-pound weight class thanks to three pins and one bye to pick up four victoriew, while losing the semifinal match by way of decision.

In the 170-pound division, Kinsey was able to take advantage of a first-round bye thanks to also winning three of his four matches after. He lost in the semifinals as well, but responded with a pin and a decision win to lock up a spot at state.

Jacob Goldfon and Kirk Smitherman closed out the qualifiers for Oak Mountain by finishing fourth in their weight classes.

Goldfon did so by going 3-2 in the 195-pound weight class, picking up one pin and one decision win, as well as a bye, to account for the three victories.

Smitherman finished fourth in the 106-pound weight class, winning three consecutive matches in a row thanks to a pin and two decisions, to earn a spot in the all-important third-place match.

While the Spain Park Jaguars were able to finish sixth in the overall team standings of the North Super Sectional meet with 81.5 points, they only saw three qualify for state.

Those three wrestlers, however, will each have a strong opportunity to represent their team with a state championship after strong showings at the section meet.

Jack Rivers, in particular, had a strong showing and was able to bring home first in the 132-pound weight class. After a bye in the first round, Rivers picked up two pins and a decision victory to complete a perfect run in the division.

Bast and John Thompson also finished inside the top three of their respective weight classes as well.

Bast was able to finish second in the 285-pound weight class thanks to three consecutive wins before losing by a pin in the first-place match.

In the 106-pound weight class, John Thompson was able to finish third thanks to picking two consecutive wins after falling in the semifinals. He won the consolation semifinal match with a decision and did so again in the third-place match.