Senior captain dominates on way to 2nd state title
He made it look easy.
Gilmer’s Caleb Waddell mowed through the competition of Class 4A’s 170-pound weight class.
The Bobcat senior captain pinned his way to the finals at the traditional state wrestling tournament and dominated his opponent when he got there. For his efforts, Waddell wrapped up his GHS career with back-to-back state championship at 170 pounds.
GHS head coach Josh Ghobadpoor had plenty of praise for his standout wrestler.
“He’s a three-time state finalist and a two-time state champ,” he said. “There’s been some amazing wrestlers at Gilmer, and I’d say Caleb is one of the best to ever come through here. He’s in elite company now as a two-time state champ.”
Waddell faced Malachi Wiley of Woodward Academy in the finals and put on a clinic. Waddell scored when and how he wanted. The only times Wiley scored was when Waddell purposely allowed him to escape only to return him to the mat seconds later.
t the conclusion of the third period, Waddell had steamrolled his way to a dominating 16-2 major decision.
When asked what allowed him to win in such a manner, Waddell responded, “I’d say my conditioning. Our coaches pushed us all year, and I think we’re the best conditioned in the state to go six minutes nonstop. He (Wiley) was gassed, and he was done after the first period.”
Wiley spent almost the entire match on his stomach to keep from getting pinned. He was repeatedly called for stalling by the referee and was one more away from being disqualified.
“We weren’t stressed out at all when Caleb went on the mat,” Ghobadpoor said. “He’s gotten that much better from last season. In the finals, he faced a four-time state placer. Wiley almost stalled out because there was nothing he could do.
“The top work was there, the bottom work was there, and the guy couldn’t do anything.”
Waddell did not place as a freshman before becoming a three-time state finalist and discussed what it meant to cap his GHS career with a second state title.
“This feels great; especially senior year to go out on top,” he said. “It feels amazing. It’s upsetting that it’s over, but I’m super grateful at the same time. My freshman year, I didn’t go all out and put all the hard work in and it showed. My sophomore year, I started working hard and am just blessed to have the opportunity.”
Waddell pinned Dalton Blount of Perry in the first period of his opening round bout. Next up was Stephens County’s Nathaniel Walker, and Waddell pinned him in the third period.
In the semifinals, he faced West Laurens’ Dre Bonner, who is a former state champion. Waddell made short work of him with a pin in just 24 seconds.
“In the semifinals, he had the defending state champion from 160 pounds, and you never would have known it because Caleb pinned him so quickly,” Ghobadpoor said. “It was remarkable the difference in ability he had this year compared to last year.”
GHS places second as a team, two girls reach medal stand
At the traditional state tournament, teams tally points based on individual wrestlers’ results. Ten Bobcats placed in the top six of their respective weight classes for 151.5 points.
Woodward Academy won the Class 4A state championship with 177. West Laurens was a distant third place with 117, and Perry (108) and Madison County (99.5) rounded out the top five.
“I’m extremely pleased with how we did and very proud of our guys,” Ghobadpoor said. “Every wrestler has their own story and how they got there. Most of these guys placed for the first time and had to battle. Out of the 11 wrestlers we brought, only one guy had been on the podium before.
“To put nine new guys up on that (state placer) board (in the Noah Harris Center), they get to taste that and feel that. Next year, we’ll return seven state placers. This is a tough, physically and mentally demanding sport, and only the best of the best were left at the end. We’re just so proud of all of them. It was an amazing job by our guys of keeping the fight up and battling back.”
The GHSA held a girls competition for the second year, and Gilmer junior Francisca Lopez (162 pounds) placed second while senior Karina Montoya-Gonzalez (152) was fourth.
Lopez pinned her way to the finals, and none of her first three matches lasted beyond the second period. In the first and second rounds, she pinned in the opening period.
In the finals, Lopez took on Heaven Byrd of Hiram. Byrd turned the tables to earn a pin in the first period.
Montoya-Gonzalez pinned her first two opponents as well before suffering the same fate in the semifinals. She won by disqualification in the consolation semifinals before a loss by pin in the third-place match.
“We brought five girls to state who are all new to wrestling,” Ghobadpoor said. “They’re all first-year wrestlers. To their credit, they were there training all summer and through the season. They had never been to the state tournament so they really didn’t know what it was like.
“To have those girls come in and get experience and have two placers was amazing. We had more girls at this tournament than any other team in Georgia. That’s something definitely to be proud of.”
For the Bobcats, their tournament started with 10 first-round wins. But in the second round, Gilmer lost more than it won.
“It felt like one of those tournaments with highs and lows,” Ghobadpoor said. “We came out in the first round and went 10 for 11. We talked about that if we could get this many to the semifinals, we’d have a great chance to win it. But, we didn’t do well that next round and went three for 10 in the quarterfinals. We had matches we should have won. In two of those losses, we faced the same guys later in the tournament and beat them.
“That was a tough round for us. We talked about where we were at and what we needed to do. We came back in the next round (consolation bracket) and went eight for eight and then seven for eight, which was outstanding.”
Senior Lucas Lopez (120) and junior Brock Sumner (132) placed third. Lopez posted a 5-1 record at the event and won his consolation finals match with a 3-1 decision. Sumner was 4-1 and earned a 4-3 decision for his third-place medal.
Sophomores Dylan Galloway (195, 4-2 record) and Jacob Cruz (285, 4-2) landed in fourth place. Both were narrowly defeated in the consolation finals as Galloway lost 4-2 and Cruz lost 6-4.
Senior Gustavo Morales (106, 4-2), freshman Diego Jacinto (138, 4-2) and junior Sammy Tercero (220, 4-2) secured fifth place. Morales pinned for his medal, and Jacinto and Tercero won 11-4 and 3-2, respectively.
Finishing sixth were sophomores Miguel Jacinto (126, 3-3) and Abel Jacinto (160, 2-3). They both lost by decision in their final match of the tournament.
Gilmer’s Walter Lopez (113) and Laura Tercero (112) each won two matches before they were eliminated.
Next season, all of Gilmer’s state placers aside from Morales, Lopez and Waddell return as GHS makes the move down to Class 3A.
A point of pride for the program has been achieving high levels of success with wrestlers who have been in the program their entire careers.
“Every one of the kids who placed at state went to Clear Creek Middle School,” Ghobadpoor said. “That’s important to us and means a lot to us. That’s not to say we’re not going to get someone who moves in from somewhere. But this year, all of our kids were from our school system and wrestled for Walt Monroe and Bo Dorsey (at CCMS) or started wrestling in high school. We’re a homegrown team.”