Advertisement

Southeast, Murray headed to state duals wrestling tournament

daniel mayes, the daily citizen, dalton, ga.
·2 min read

Jan. 18—Wrestling teams at Southeast Whitfield High School and Murray County High School are bound for the State's Elite 8.

Both programs compete in the eight-team state team duals tournament on Saturday.

Southeast Whitfield is headed for the Class 4A tournament at Lovett School in Atlanta, where the Raiders face host Lovett in a first-round matchup. Murray competes at Jeff Davis High in Hazelhurst after making the state Elite 8 for the second straight year. The Indians get Fannin County in the first round.

The two programs punched their ticket at preliminary meets on Saturday.

At Jordan High School in Columbus on Saturday, Murray County downed host Jordan 43-36 and then Eagles Landing Christian 60-18 to advance to the state tourney.

Southeast Whitfield has waited a little longer to make a return trip to the state duals tournament.

The Raiders dropped Benedictine 45-35 and Southwest DeKalb 42-30 in Savannah on Saturday to return to the state duals for the first time in nine seasons.

The Raiders are headed to the Elite 8 despite finishing fourth in Region 7-4A at the region duals meet the previous week. The three teams that finished ahead of Southeast at the region meet all pushed through to the state tournament. Southeast could face Heritage in the second round.

Murray also finished fourth in its region, Region 7-2A, before reaching the state tourney. Three other Region 7-2A teams also join Murray, including first-round opponent Fannin County, the region champ.

Southeast and Murray were the only boys teams to reach the prelim round on Saturday in either Whitfield or Murray counties, but Southeast's girls program also competed Saturday, bowing out in the state's round of 16.

The Lady Raiders, in the inaugural season for the girls' team, downed Toombs County 54-12 in the first round at the girls prelim tournament in Buford on Saturday. Southeast fell to Greenbrier to fall one match short of joining Southeast's boys at state. There is only one classification for girls duals.