Photo courtesy of Dawn Harrison.
Oak Mountain’s Austin Buird wrestles at the state tournament in February.
The Chelsea, Oak Mountain and Spain Park high school wrestling teams completed the season at the state tournament in Huntsville in mid-February.
Oak Mountain finished tied for sixth in the Class 7A division, accumulating 47 points, while Spain Park was tied for ninth with 35 points. Thompson ran away with the 7A title, scoring 194.5 points. Vestavia Hills was second with 118.5 and Hewitt-Trussville scored 106.5 for third. Huntsville and Smiths Station finished ahead of the Eagles, while they tied with Bob Jones.
Chelsea finished 22nd in 5A-6A. The battle for the 6A title was tightly contested. Mortimer Jordan scored 125.5 points to win it all, while Arab was a close second with 119 points. McAdory racked up 112.5 for third place and Gardendale was fourth with 107.5.
Austin Buird led the way for Oak Mountain, as he won the 132-pound division. He defeated Auburn’s Isaiah Watts, Huntsville’s Max Morrow and Thompson’s Nick Dempsey to secure the title.
Nic Rigdon reached the final in the 285-pound class, where he fell to Smiths Station’s Steven Flagg. Rigdon knocked off Foley’s Johnathan Keers and Spain Park’s Rayshod Burts to get to the final.
Camden Tipton placed fourth at 113 pounds. Kirk Smitherman and Zach Hauck also wrestled at state for the Eagles.
Kalob Johnstone was the leader for Chelsea, as he finished fourth at 182 pounds. Landon Keith, Tyler Rayford, Bear Maxwell, Harrison Brakefield, Collin Burroughs and Ian Osbourn also competed for the Hornets.
Bradley Williams led Spain Park with a second-place finish in the 126-pound division. He knocked off Huntsville’s Joseph Sowell and Hoover’s Baylor Hardy to reach the final, where he fell to Thompson’s Yanni Vines.
William Conlon finished third in the 182 bracket, beating Thompson’s Nathan Black in the third-place match.
Brad Cummings (138), Jackson Mitchell (170) and Rayshod Burts (285) also wrestled for the Jags.
