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Published Sunday, February 05, 2012 in Sports

Sports Digest: Northgate's Askey continues push 3rd straight state title

By Chris Goltermann

The Newnan Times-Herald

Northgate wrestling coach Adrian Anderson pressed his lineup hard this week in practice, knowing the effort it would take to advance out of last weekend's Area 3-AAAA traditional tournament.

By the end of Saturday, however, he was doubting himself a bit.

Only undefeated two-time state champion Tyler Askey was able to come through the gauntlet of 13 schools competing for four individual berths in 14 weight classes last weekend at Fayette County.

Askey defeated Luke Runyan of Starr's Mill in the 170-pound finals while now continuing his pursuit of a third consecutive state title at this weekend's Class AAAA East Sectionals in Loganville. His other state championships came at 145 and 152 pounds.

The junior's record now stands at 144-0 and can keep the string alive with eight more wins between the sectionals and another trip to the GHSA Championships on Feb. 18 in Gwinnett.

Anderson, who was already without son Alex for the season heading into the tournament, knew it was going to take strong efforts for Viking wrestlers to advance to the sectional level. By Saturday morning, Michael Geres, Ethan Bellora, Cody Simonez, Michael Martin and Askey were Northgate's only remaining survivors.

Of those, only Askey had been to the sectionals.

"Looking back, I probably took them too deep into the week in practice. That's my fault," said Anderson, whose teams have won well over 300 matches. "We looked sluggish."

The rest of the area's talent pool may have had a bigger role in Northgate's struggles, with Whitewater dominating the team scores.

The Wildcats qualified 10 wrestlers including Chase Penland and at least 12 schools qualified at least one for the sectionals. Ola will send six and Union Grove and Alcovy each have three or more advancing. Harris County also was a surprise while placing fourth.

Askey joins 13 Newnan wrestlers and seven from East Coweta in respective state sectional tournaments. The Cougars captured the Area 2-AAAAA title on Saturday.

A feature story on Askey will run later this week in The Newnan Times-Herald.

•••

BASKETBALL

VIKINGS STREAK INTO REGION TOURNAMENT AT HOME: When the Region 3-AAAA basketball tournament brackets are officially announced, teams might be hoping to avoid Northgate's boys.

Northgate teams, who will act as tournament hosts when play begins on Wednesday, could be ready to use home court to its advantage.

On Saturday, the Vikings closed the regular season with an impressive 55-36 victory over McIntosh, giving Northgate's boys five wins over its last seven games.

One of the two losses came Friday against Class AAAA No. 1-ranked Fayette County.

Head coach Mack Cain's lineup enters the postseason at 12-13 overall, having won four of its last five games in subregion 3B-AAAA. The victory over McIntosh knocked the Chiefs' record to 12-12 and 8-4 while snapping a five-game winning streak.

The Lady Vikings dropped Saturday's finale 52-20, but have played their best basketball down the stretch as well. The team closed the year 2-2 minus a loss to defending Class AAAA champion Fayette County on Friday.

East Coweta and Newnan wrap up the regular season this week with a pair of Region 2-AAAAA games.

Newnan hosts M.L. King on Tuesday and travels to Stephenson Friday. The Cougars (11-12, 2-10) snapped a four-game losing streak on Friday with a win over the Indians (8-14, 1-11), whose losing streak hit seven games.

East Coweta teams travel to Newton on Tuesday and host Westlake on Friday. The Lady Indians (9-13, 3-8) have won four of their last six games and could overtake Langston Hughes for fifth place this week.

Stephenson (12-0), Westlake (8-2), Newton (7-4) and Luella (7-4) have clinched the top-four girls seeds in next week's region tournament at Westlake.

Westlake's boys are undefeated in region play at 12-0, with Newton (8-4), M.L King (8-4) and Langston Hughes (8-4) in a battle for second. Luella is fifth at 6-6, followed by Stephenson (3-9), Newnan and East Coweta.

•••

SPRING SPORTS

SOCCER: Northgate and East Coweta soccer teams hold first matches on Friday in scrimmages, before opening the season on Valentine's Day. Northgate hosts Langston Hughes for its scrimmage Friday at 6 p.m., and East Coweta travels to Chapel Hill.

East Coweta opens Feb. 14 hosting Mountain View, while Northgate travels to Carrollton.

•••

(Spring sports coaches can email schedules and rosters to The Newnan Times-Herald at sports@newnan.com )

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