COVINGTON, Ga. — Eastside High School hosted the 2023 Region 8-AAAAA wrestling duals on Saturday, Jan. 7. When the meet concluded, the Eagles came in third place after defeating Winder-Barrow.
Head coach Sam Miller was proud of his team’s effort to claim third place.
“It took a collective team effort to step up and perform,” Miller said. “We had to bump some guys up to fill weight classes and everyone who got to wrestle won some big matches. Winning against Loganville at the end in particular was an awesome feeling. They had beat us last year to qualify for the state duals so it felt good to get that win back.”
There were impressive finishes by numerous Eagles to assist with their third place finish.
As part of the 113-pound weight class, Nolan Christian went 4-0 with Hasaan Williams’ 4-0 finish in the 126-pound weight class. Jordan Hittle also went 4-0 in the 138-pound weight class followed by Wyatt Bauer’s 4-0 record in the 175-pound weight class.
Toward the middle in the 132-pound weight class, Dylan Baynes and Jordan Amedee each went 2-0.
Loganville took first place with Flowery Branch narrowly defeating Eastside for region runner-up.
Next up for the Eagles is the Class AAAAA playoff duals on Jan. 14 beginning at 9 a.m. Their senior night will be on Jan. 25 at 5 p.m. against Hampton, Cedar Shoals and Eagle’s Landing Christian.
Miller hopes his team learned two valuable lessons: “Anybody can be anybody” and “It takes everybody to win.”
“Prime example is Hasaan Williams. He’s just a freshman that has been basically a backup all season, yet he goes out in a high-pressure varsity event and not only goes undefeated but wins all by pin,” Miller said.
“You can’t just rely on the studs to win. We had three wrestlers: Amaiah Clayton, Nolan Christian and Wyatt Bauer that had to really work hard for several weeks to drop to a lower weight class. Had they not put in that work I can’t say for sure we’d be going to state duals…maybe, but our chances were greatly magnified by their willingness to put the team first.”
