RMC

Anybody notice the name of the 140 pound champion????

It's in Winder Georgia, north east of Atlanta. Good tournament, teams from Wisconsin, Penn., Florida, South Carolina and Georgia in a 19 team field.

The team from Florida awsome; their 119 pounder, Jason Robbins, was head and shoulders the best in the tournament. He beat Parker 4 - 0 in the finals. Evidently he is the real deal, from what I heard he is in the middle of his 3rd undefeated season and a 2-time state Champion.

[Edited by RMC on 12-30-02 11:16A]

Soddy came in 5th in the Winder-Barrow Inv. First was Collins Hill, Oviedo (Florida), Norristown(Penn.) Custer (Wisc.),and Soddy. Nick Lukacs(Collins Hill) was named Outstanding Wrestler after beating John Lane of Soddy Daisy 13 - 5 in the finals

Just wanted to update this thread, Parker (Collins Hill) beat James this weekend at the Winder-Barrow Inv. this weekend.

I'm pretty familiar with all four kids you're talking about here. The Parker kid from Collins is a very good wrestler and been tough for everyone. Last year he lost in the McCallie Inv. to James in double overtime, he also lost last year to Cordell in double overtime. This year he beat Cordell in overtime and should have been awarded the take down against James. I think James and Cordell are very close, both have very defensive styles. The one thing I did notice, and you might want to pass on to James, he didn't shoot or do anything offensive from his feet in the semi-finals or finals. If he'll pull the trigger and be more offensive from his feet, on these top ranked kids, he could be special.

If I'm not mistaken, James and Parker (Collins Hill) get another shot at each other very soon.

[Edited by RMC on 12-24-02 8:51A]

I thought the 103 match was a pretty good one too, Knapp - Prater, with Prater winning 10 - 7.

I thought maybe too that John Lane might have been deserving of the Outstanding Wrestler.

Simpson got it last year.

We (Collins Hill) have 103 pounder that will be at the McCallie tournament that may give Dunning a run for his money. The kid is only a 9th grader, but he pinned Coleman last Saturday.

Drew Woodward (Baylor) is at Carson Newman.....at 184. He is my nephew.

I'm not sure if it was a "limit" or not. I went to school with Pat and had Junior High and High School that were housed at two different locations.

Prior to Pat Murphy we had another pretty good wrestler in Tom Popp. Actually we had a string of pretty good wrestlers: Stan Walden, Randy Batten, Dean Smith, Marvin Walden, and Steve Griffith. Batten, Smith, and Murphy all had good careers at UTC.

Thanks, should be fun. I couldn't enjoy it last year with a nephew in the finals at 189 for Baylor. Too stressful, but no relatives wrestling in it this year so I can sit back and enjoy!

I was standing there too and don't remember it exactly as Ward reported it in the paper. Doesn't really matter, what's past is past. Hope it doesn't happen again. The kids work too hard for something like that to make the newspaper instead of their wrestling. Though, it should make for an interesting match next year, the kid is a junior.

The kid from Collins Hill at 135 is one of the best in Georgia, maybe even Tennessee too, but the situation really got over blown. All the kid's dad do was ask, "You've got a whole stable of good wrestlers why couldn't you put a 135 pounder out on the mat?" Apparently that question offended the Bradley coach. Collins Hill put a JV kid on the at 160 because fans want to see the good kids wrestle. The kid at 135 is good kid and a good wrestler. In Georgia, people don't forfeit they usually wrestle complete lineups. What's the worst that can happen, a JV kid gets some experience.

I'm surprised Pat Murphy doesn't get a little more respect. Didn't he go on and become UTC's only 4 time Southern Conference champion? And If I remember correctly, 3 of his 4 loses in high school were to Johnny Bradford, the defending state champion, in his sophmore season. Remember, he wrestled when you only got 3 years to wrestle in high school and he was 64 - 4. The other loss came to Ellis Gardner, from McCallie, and that was the day he had a cast taken off his leg. He later pinned Gardner in the State finals after getting up 14 to 2 on him. Gardner's 2 points came from uneccessary roughness points. In the match where Gardner beat Murphy he attacked Murphy's leg that he just been uncasted.

In the for what it's worth column, Tyler Parker (119 Collins Hill) already beat the kid from McEachern this year.

Don't count the kid out from Collins Hill at 119. Tyler Parker is very good wrestler and proved it last weekend against Cordell. Last year James beat him, but that was only his second year of wrestling. He is much, much better this year. I help out doing what I can for the Collins Hill team and they've got a good, young group of wrestlers. I grew up and wrestled in the Chattanooga area and know how tough the tournament will be. Look for our 135, Nick Lukacs to make some noise too. I also expect the 275 pounder to finish near the top. The 103 pounder is good, but only in the 9th grade...he'll get better. Collins Hill is young and getting better all the time.

For what it's worth, the last time those two met, Parker and Cordell, they went into double overtime. Both are very good. Parker is a defending Georgia 5A state champion. He is a pretty big story down here because he has only wrestled for 3 years. We'll have to wait and see how he does this weekend at the McCallie Invitational.