Sectional wrestling meet starts today at Auburn High

If there was ever a time for Ross Reed’s wrestlers to peak, now is the time to do it.

The Auburn High coach said his team has been struggling a bit with its youth this year after losing eight of the 11 state qualifiers from last year’s squad.

But none of that will matter when 11 teams convene at the Auburn Fieldhouse for the Class 6A-Section 1 tournament tonight.

The top four wrestlers in each weight class qualify for the state championships in Huntsville on Feb. 5-7. The other seven are not so lucky.

“We want to save our best wrestling for this weekend,” Reed said. “We want a lot of our kids to be practicing Monday. I got a lot of kids who want a two-day vacation from school.”

Auburn’s wrestlers join athletes from Opelika, Central, Smiths Station, Russell County, Benjamin Russell, Jeff Davis, Lee-Montgomery, Prattville, Stanhope Elmore and Wetumpka at its fieldhouse for the two-day event. The preliminary rounds begin tonight at 6, the consolation rounds Saturday morning at 9, and the finals Saturday at 3 p.m.

Section 1 is the largest 6A section in the state, outnumbering its classmates by two and three teams. Benjamin Russell, a power in 5A, made the jump to the highest class without skipping a beat this year, and perennial powers Lee and Prattville are also in the mix.

“Kids have set goals since last year or four or five years ago to get to the state tournament,” Opelika coach Ryan Thompson said. “It’s going to be pretty intense.”

Thompson said the Bulldogs’ goal is to qualify a wrestler in all 14 weight classes, or at least to improve on the four it qualified last year.

He said the team’s best chances are at 103 pounds, where Brian White is 39-3 this season, 140, where Hunter Robinson is undefeated, 125 (Jacob Taylor) and 119 (Cole McCarty).

But anything can happen.

“They’re fighting tooth-and-nail to get in those four spots,” Thompson said. “Every team will have a kid that they wouldn’t give a chance in you know what to get through, and they do.”

The Tigers return three of their state qualifiers from last year: Michael Jordan, the top seed at 112 pounds, Dalton Edwards, the No. 3 seed at 145, and Josh Gore at heavyweight.

Reed said Shelton Bledsoe at 130 and Spencer Ramsey, the No. 4 seed at 189, are Auburn’s other best chances to qualify.

But he said it’s more difficult to predict how the wrestlers will hold up over two days of competition.

“Kids in other sections can show up Saturday morning, make weight, wrestle and be done with it,” he said. “It’s a stressful deal. There’s going to be a lot of desperate wrestling this weekend.”

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