VALDOSTA — Valdosta High won its fourth Region 1-AAAAA wrestling tournament in the last five years Wednesday.

Valdosta defeated Lowndes, Coffee and Houston County in region dual matches Wednesday night in Douglas, to wrap up the region title. Valdosta had already defeated Tift County 56-12 and Colquitt County 74-6 in dual meets on Jan. 4, so the Wildcats end their region season 5-0.

“I’m very happy. Four (region titles) in five years,” Valdosta head coach Benjy Scarbor said. “I’m proud of these guys. They have worked very hard for this, and that hard work has paid off.

“We felt like we were the best team in the region all year, but it still feels good to win the region.”

Valdosta’s toughest competition came from crosstown rival Lowndes. Lowndes kept the match close, before the Wildcats pulled out a 38-23 win.

“It was closer than I thought it would be,” Scarbor said. “To their credit, Lowndes wrestled extremely well.”

Several matches went down to the end. Valdosta’s Marcus Morrison won a tight 10-7 decision over Lowndes’ Brent Moss at 112 pounds. Lowndes’ Tyler Armstrong defeated Valdosta’s Herb Reinhard 4-3 at 103 pounds, while teammate Austin Crockett defeated Xavier Thompson at 160 pounds, 4-2.

For Valdosta, Kamrin Naville (152 pounds) and Jarrett Williams (130) both pinned their opponents. Paul Bess (171) and Corey Wills (275) won by forfeit. Tavaris Sharp won 13-5 at 135 pounds, John George won 10-2 at 145 pounds, and Will Welch won at 189 pounds, 7-2.

Lowndes’ Josh Key (119 pounds) pinned his opponent. Tomas Chavarria (125) won 7-1, Jamie Moreno (140) won 9-0, and Andrew Dunn (215) won 10-2.

“We wrestled them pretty well in some of the matches,” Lowndes head coach Spencer Graybeal said. “Valdosta’s just got so much depth.”

While Valdosta’s victory over Lowndes was close, the Wildcats’ other two victories Wednesday were lopsided. Valdosta defeated Coffee 56-9 and Houston 57-18.

Against Coffee, Bess, Wills, Rodney Braithwaite (160), George, Sharp and Marcos Alonzo (135) all won by pin. Reinhard and Welch each won major decisions, and Morrison, Parker Childree, Williams and Naville each won by decision.

Against Houston, Sharp, Childree, Naville, Braithwaite, Welch and Chris Daniels (215) won by pin. George won by decision, and Morrison, Allen Scruggs (189) and Wills won by forfeit.

Valdosta will compete in the Suwannee tournament in Live Oak, Fla. this weekend. They will host their final home meet of the season on Senior Night next Wednesday.

With the region title, the Wildcats qualified for the Class AAAAA state duals on Jan. 20. Valdosta will face Redan in the first round.



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Lowndes wound up being the region runner-up, going 4-1 in the region season. The Vikings qualified for the state duals, where they will face Newton County in the first round.

On Wednesday, Lowndes also defeated Tift County, 45-27.

Key, Armstrong, Chavarria, Kevin McDowell (135), Moreno and Dunn all won by pin. Moss won by decision, and Andrew Moody (112) won by forfeit. In one of the best matches of the day, at 152 pounds, Kyle Chamberlain took region champion Marvin Chaney to the wire before losing 7-6.

Lowndes is going to the Greeneville Invitational in Greeneville, Tenn., this weekend.

“It’s a pretty tough tournament. There are some great teams there,” Graybeal said. “Hopefully it will help some of our wrestlers get better. With region duals going on this weekend, there weren’t any tournaments in Georgia, so we decided to go up to that one in Tennessee.”