On November 29th, several Harrison wrestlers took part in the “Top of the Mountain Beginners Tournament” at Kennesaw Mtn High School. Sixth grader Bryan Allison won first place in the U12, 130lb division. Bryan wrestled the same Fort Benning wrestler 3 times, and he was able to win all three matches by a pin. Jarrod Pominville (U6, 55lb) and Luke Beverly (U8, 52-58lb) both won Silver in their divisions. Patrick Curd was able to take the Bronze medal in the U6, 55lb division.

Saturday night was a big night for several of Harrison middle school wrestlers.  The Big Kid Folkstyle State tournament was held at Roswell High School Saturday the 7th.  Six of our middle schoolers qualified for this tournament, and when the smoke cleared, three of the Hoyas walked away with hardware.

Wade Shubert started things off right for the Hoyas with a solid third place showing in the 12 & Under 140lb weight class.  Wade won his first match by pin and then upset the number three seed to make it into the semifinals.  After a loss to the eventual champion at the weight class, Wade battled back to seize third place.  Wade is only a seventh grader and will return next year to lead the Hoyas middle school wrestling team and to get another shot at winning the state title.

History was made for Harrison in the 14 and under finals as two Hoyas walked away with state titles in the same year.  Harrison has had many individual state titles but until Saturday night, they had not come in pairs.  Anthony Fiacco won his first state title in the tournament’s most competitive weight class at 140lbs.  Anthony had a technical fall victory and a pin to place him in the finals against a very tough Dan Harris from Carrolton.  Anthony took the lead early and won convincingly to put him in the finals against Corey Wilson from Roswell.  This finals match may have been the most exciting and physical bout of the entire finals, but in the end Anthony prevailed with a 4-3 win and continued the Fiacco legacy in Georgia Wrestling.

The other state title went to Spencer Rickman at 110lbs.   Spencer’s state championship was his fourth in a row and by far his most dominant.  Spencer won all his matches, including the finals match, with pins in the first period. 

Harrison had two other wrestlers compete in the state tournament.  Bryan Allison in the 12 and under division and Kevin Bell in the 14 and under division.  Although the state tournament was the first for both wrestlers,  they each exceeded expectations with each finding the win column.  It will really be exciting to see what these two do with the momentum from this years state tournament experience.

The Hoya Freestyle Wrestling Club is underway with about 25 wrestlers attending practice on Tuesday. There is a good mix of High School, Middle School, and some youth wrestlers. Coach Sean Moistner is doing a great job instructing the wrestlers in the unique differences in Folkstyle, Freestyle and Greco wrestling. The wrestlers seem to be enjoying the practices and learning new Freestyle & Greco skills to improve their future wrestling careers. If you are interested in the Freestyle Club, practices are on Mon & Wed at 6pm and you can pay on line at the Hoya wrestling web site.

The afternoon session at the middle school qualifiers was a huge success for our wrestlers who participated.  Our team qualified 6 for next week’s state tournament at Roswell High School.

Spencer Rickman (110lb), Wade Shubert ( ), and Anthony Fiacco (140lb) won their weight classes and should be favorites heading into the state tournament.   John Fredericksen (100lb), Kevin Bell (115lb), and Bryan Allison (121lb) all placed third in their weight class. 

Spencer, Anthony, Kevin & John are eigth graders and this state tournament represents their final shot at obtaining a USA Kids state title before entering the high school ranks next year.

The middle school Mighty Duck squad (Varsity Team) show great signs of progress in their wrestling abilities in this weekend’s Middle School State Duals at Peachtree Ridge High School.  The Mighty ducks wrestled well against Georgia’s top middle school teams.   Coach Nick remarked after a close loss to ranked Collins Hill, “This team was in the match the entire dual.  Our team was just as skilled and prepared as they [Collins Hill] were.  I would not have been able to say this only one short month ago.  I could tell things were changing by the atmosphere in practice the last couple of weeks.  Our boys are really making great strides to becoming better wrestlers.”

Although this year’s squad did not finish in the top six, they certainly made other teams take notice.  Furthermore, they improved over last year’s State Dual performance at Union Grove high School.

Coach Nick took his middle school team to the McCallie Tornado Duals for a very tough dual format tournament.  The young Harrison middle school team faced the toughest middle school teams in the state of Tennessee.  Although the team finished a disappointing tenth place in this event, the team had many highlights to the weekend.  On Saturday night, the team all stayed at a local hotel with an indoor pool.  The Booster Club also catered a barbeque dinner for the boys.  Finally, the team went on Sunday to see the Division 1 college dual between the University of Tennessee - Chattanooga and the nationally ranked Oklahoma Sooners.  This was the first out of state trip for a Harrison Wrestling Club middle school team, and another important step in building a strong wrestling program.

The booster club has purchased a new set of singlets for the Harrison Wrestling Club’s Middle School varsity team.  This move was another sign of commitment from the Coach and Booster Club to exemplify their commitment to building a strong program from the ground up at Harrison High School.  These new singlets will be worn by our starting middle school wrestlers at all team events.   The sharp new singlets are blue and green with a “H” on the front and the name “Mighty Ducks” on the back.  The “Mighty Ducks” name is related to the High School’s “Dojo Trained” faction that Coach Fiacco has created to label the group of wrestlers doing extra things to improve their level.