Sports Editor

The Starr's Mill Panthers wrestled in the 4-AAA area

tournament at Sandy Creek on Saturday. They knew that

Woodward Academy was the favorite to win the meet, what they did not

know was how close to the War Eagles they would finish. Woodward

finished the meet with 253.5 overall points, Starr's Mill

finished with 244.5. Coach Mickey Statham expected the Panthers

to finish in second place but the results were still pleasing.

They qualified 13 wrestlers for next weekend's state meet in

Rome, Ga. as well as qualifying one alternate.

Starr's Mill had 11 wrestlers make the finals, six of whom

finished as champions: Jason Kiefer at 125, Ariston Bowers at

135, Drew Cofty at 140, Matt Fuhrman at 152,Stephen Behringer at

189 and Clint Barbour at 215.

Second place finishers were Gary James at 103, Bryan

Kyser at 130,Christopher Coleman at 145, Rusty Lyle at 160 and

Akhil Chhabra at 171. Matt Thurber and Dustin Lyle took third place

at 112 and 119 respectively. Tony Tofanelli is an alternate in the

275 pound weight division.

The AAA state meet begins at 10:30 a.m. on Friday at the

Forum in Rome, Ga. The meet will run through Saturday as well.

The Panthers expect some tough competition from Woodward

and Troup County as well as many of the north Georgia schools

like Murray County and Ringgold.

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