Peace in the Valley
- Updated: January 3, 2022
Inspired Valley Cubs win six weight classes to take their first County wrestling title; Weaver’s Anderson voted outstanding wrestling
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
WEAVER — They went back to the more traditional style of tournament for the Calhoun County Wrestling Tournament this year and it just may have started a new tradition.
Driven by the memory of a beloved assistant coach and tiring of looking at all the County Tournament runner-up trophies in their case, the Alexandria Valley Cubs won their first County Wrestling title in a runaway Monday.
The tournament in most recent memory had been an 8-man bracket format, but because of COVID concerns last year’s tournament was a duals match event with the top four seeds battling it out for the county crown and the outside five having a separate event of their own for mat time.
It went back to a bracket format this year and the Valley Cubs flourished.
They won six of the eight weight class finals they had wrestlers in and scored 218.5 points. It was their third tournament title this season.
Ohatchee staged a big rally in the middle of the consolation finals and roared past Piedmont for second and the best Class 1A-4A team in the field. The Indians had 175 points to the Bulldogs’ 162.
Preston Jones (115), Joseph Lomax (134), Ethan Pizano (140), Jaden New (154), Connor Hall (222) and Juddson Cromer (287) all won their weight classes for Alexandria. The Cubs had 11 of their 13 wrestlers make the championship or consolation finals.
“It went about as well as I could have possibly imagined,” said Cubs coach Frank Hartzog, who was voted County Coach of the Year by his peers. I knew it was possible, but it took them going out there and wrestling hard to make it happen.
“I was very nervous going into this because I knew Piedmont was super tough, had a lot of incredible athletes out. Of course, Weaver has a lot of hammers and Oxford. We’ve never snuck one out, we’ve always gone second. I think the kids had a little extra motivation.”
New believed “we exceeded the limits we thought we were going to do.”
“That’s awesome,” Cromer said. “I’ve been wrestling for five years now and it’s the first time in five years we’ve won it. It’s just insane. I’m ecstatic about it.”
The Valley Cubs had finished second in the county three times before and Hartzog had gotten so tired of staring at the runner-up trophies he repurposed them into the prizes for this year’s County Youth Tournament. Now, their wrestling room has nothing but champions and championship trophies on display.
“We just have a whole accolade going now,” New said. “I’m glad this is a whole new thing to put up there and I hope there will be more people on there after I’m gone, like next year’s team and keep going and make that wall full.”
The Cubs did have extra motivation in the event, just as they have into the whole season. They had close to their hearts the memory of assistant coach Tres Payne who they lost to COVID in the fall.
“I said today we’re wrestling for Coach Payne,” Hartzog said. “They went out there and wrestled hard. We lost some matches that could’ve gone either way, but they didn’t get give up. I think they laid it on the line for coach Payne today.”
Cromer admitted the memory of their former coach has movitated him all season.
“Every time I feel down and I’m worried about a match I always go back and think of ho Coach Payne would encourage us to keep going and push on,” he said. “That’s helped me a lot to keep going this year. In that last match, I could just hear his words going through my head the whole time.”
Ohatchee and Piedmont waged a battle for second all day. Piedmont held a 17-point edge going into the championship session, but Ohatchee overtook the Bulldogs with four consecutive pins between 140 and 162 (Sam Jones, Malachi Goble, Deacon Engle and Matthew King) in the consolation finals. They moved comfortable ahead after Troy Galloway’s major decision over Piedmont’s Jalon Helm in the 197 title bout.
Nine of the 12 wrestlers the Indians brought made either the consolation or championship finals
“This is really, really big,” Ohatchee coach Chris Findley said. “We struggled at the start of the year, we had a bunch of guys out, but coming back from Christmas we were able to get everybody back healthy, get everybody to the weight room. We thought we could really compete and this is a good kickoff to the second half of the year.”
Weaver’s Devin Anderson was named most valuable wrestler after winning at 184, the toughest bracket in the field.
CALHOUN COUNTY WRESTLING TOURNAMENT
Team scores: Alexandria 218.5, Ohatchee 175, Piedmont 162, Weaver 150.5, Oxford 112, White Plains 103, Saks 57.5, Wellborn 31, Pleasant Valley 29, Anniston 18.
Championship matches
108: Briley Carter, Ohatchee pinned Hayden Hartzog, Alexandria, 1:34
115: Preston Jones, Alexandria pinned Trent Hopkins, Saks, 1:32
122: Kaleb Shelton, Oxford pinned Baron House, Pleasant Valley, 2:26
128: Chase Jenkins, Piedmont pinned Mason Hahm, White Plains, 3:01
134: Joseph Lomax, Alexandria pinned Mark Ponder, White Plains, 1:26
140: Ethan Pizano, Alexandria pinned Noah Screws, Wellborn, 2:58
147: Michael Howell, Oxford pinned Bentley Chandler, Piedmont, 2:24
154: Jaden New, Alexandria pinned Hunter Bagley, Piedmont, 0:25
162: Joshua Johannson, Weaver maj. dec. over Carson Farr, Alexandria, 17-6
172: Anthony Usry, Weaver pinned Brayden Morgan, Piedmont, 1:36
184: Devin Anderson, Weaver tech fall over Cody Freer, Ohatchee, 15-0 (4:00)
197: Troy Galloway, Ohatchee maj. dec. over Jalon Helm, Piedmont, 18-8
222: Connor Hall, Alexandria pinned Landon Smart, Piedmont, 3:44
287: Juddson Cromer, Alexandria pinned Cameron Thornton, Weaver, 4:00
Third-place matches
108: Dalton Fink, Weaver, pinned Jaiden Melendez, Piedmont, 1:45
115: Gavin Kilgore, White Plains pinned Izak Duke, Piedmont, 3:55
122: Kasin Bramlett, Ohatchee pinned Tanner Jarrell, White Plains, 3:32
128: Kash Hornsby, Oxford maj. dec. over Gianluca Torres, Weaver, 11-1
134: Caaleb Tidwell, Piedmont dec. Zach Land, Wellborn, 7-6
140: Sam Jones, Ohatchee pinned Gage Brown, Saks, 1:46
147: Malachi Goble, Ohatchee pinned Kaden Deline, Alexandria, 2:48
154: Deacon Engle, Ohatchee pinned Brilley Carter, Weaver, 1:35
162: Matthew King, Ohatchee pinned John Bussey, Saks, 1:27
172: Josh Kirby, White Plains dec. Zane Cash, Pleasant Valley, 6-1
184: Payton Ratliff, Oxford pinned Jackson Primm, Alexandria, 2:24
197: Luke Campbell, White Plains pinned Daniel Finley, Alexandria, 2:52
222: Brock Thrash, Ohatchee dec. Hayden Ransom, Weaver, 8-5
287: Caleb Tinner, Oxford pinned Clay Rucker, Saks, 1:58
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