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Published Wednesday, February 01, 2012 in Sports

Prep Wrestling: Newnan shines on Senior Night

By Chris Goltermann

The Newnan Times-Herald

After watching six seniors in his lineup all post victories Tuesday night, Newnan head wrestling coach Tom Everett had a right to feel torn about the thought of Cougar upperclassmen that are now in the last months of respective varsity careers.

In all, Newnan's program honored seven senior wrestlers and one of its senior mat girls during a 58-16 victory over LaGrange at home, where a handful of Cougar starters rested while preparing for Saturday's traditional Area 2-AAAAA tournament at East Coweta.

The hope for Everett and his wrestling staff this weekend is that a majority of Newnan's lineup, including the senior class, will continue to compete at the state level.

On Tuesday, seniors Javious Favors (220), Justin Gates (182), Josh Goodall (160), Troy Owens (285), Caleb Spinks (138) and team captain David Finlay (170) won matches against the Grangers.

Goodall got things started with a first-period pin at 160 pounds after taking a 10-1 lead and Finlay and Gates quickly followed with 18-3 and 14-6 decisions to give Newnan an early 14-0 lead.

Finlay and Gates are among seven Cougars looking to return to the Class AAAAA state sectionals this year. The top-four finishers on Saturday advance to the state level, with the final 16 in each weight class moving on to the GHSA State Championships at Gwinnett Arena.

Favors and Owens capped off the heavyweights with respective pins. Favors came in the first period and Owens led 9-3 in the third before adding another six points to the team score.

Spinks, a third-year varsity wrestler who qualified for the state sectionals last year, also scored a third-period pin in the next to last bout on Tuesday.

Other Newnan winners included Antonio Bandiera (120 pounds, first period pin) and sophomore Luke Nauris (145 pounds, second period pin).

The Cougars dropped only two contested matches to LaGrange.

Saying goodbye to the seven upperclassmen wasn't easy. They included two, three and -- in Finlay's case -- four-year contributors.

The Newnan coach reminded what has become a large contingent of varsity and junior varsity wrestlers seated during postmatch ceremonies at the high school's old gym that area titles aren't won overnight.

"It takes years," he said.

Just a few years ago, some of this year's seniors were sophomores on a much smaller roster that consistently found themselves up against older competition in varsity matches.

"A lot of these guys had to start from scratch," Everett said. "This year, we've got guys like Luke Nauris who are good wrestlers but who are having a tough time finding a weight to wrestle at."

Newnan was coming off strong efforts at both the varsity and junior-varsity levels last weekend. Max Davis and junior Andrew Sowerbrower earned a break on Tuesday after outstanding matches at the Bowdon Invitational that included Sowerbrower's 1-0 overtime decision in the semfinals at 113 pounds.

The junior-varsity team, meanwhile, finished an impressive second at the Sandy Creek Invitational.

"I remember times when we were at that meet that we'd be on the bus Saturday by noon," Everett said.

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