Over the Christmas break, McIntosh hosted 30 teams in

the McIntosh Wrestling Invitational. It was a good preview of what

the state meet will look like. The top teams from the state,

Harrison, Pope, Lassiter and Wheeler, were all in attendance. Harrison

took first place with 230 points while Pope, Troup and Lassiter

took second, third and fourth place respectively. McIntosh took

sixth place with 150.5 points and had some outstanding individual

performances.

Carlos Dinkins took fifth place in the 103 pound weight

division, while Josh Rickards took fourth place in the 125 pound

weight division. Joe Giovinco finished in sixth place in the 171 pound

weight division and Lukas Smith finished in fourth place in the 189

pound weight division. Both Giovinco and Smith had to default in

later rounds due to injury.

Matt Smith was the champion in the 275 pound weight

division. Waters, third in the state last year, defeated a familiar

opponent, McRea, fifth in the state last year, by a score of 8-4. Waters

has faced McRea three times in his career and never lost. The

biggest surprise for the Chiefs was sophomore Eddie Smith. Smith was

the champion of the 135 pound weight division. He defeated four

seniors on his way to first place and was voted the most outstanding

wrestler of the tournament. His final match was voted the most

exciting match of the finals. "They all know who he is now," said

Coach Marty Hutsell. "Now, he's a marked man."

Coach Hutsell was pleased with how the Chiefs performed

last week. "We wrestled as well as we could with eight sophomores,

but we made sophomore mistakes and it cost us." The Chiefs travel

to Fitzgerald for a tournament this Tuesday and Wednesday

before hosting the county duals next Tuesday. The Chiefs will be

traveling light to Fitzgerald, as four members of the team will be

healing their wounds at home. The varsity matches of the county

duals will begin at 6:30 p.m.

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