VALDOSTA - A journey to the heart of Georgia wrestling featuring a state champion Valdosta High team welcomed the Clay High Blue Devils who stormed to a team title at the All State Wildcat Invitational in Valdosta on Friday and Saturday.
Clay, now with their third title in three outings, knocked off a persistent Coffee County team with a 219 team score to Coffee's 202. Lowndes County finished third at 179 with Valdosta fourth at 173.5.
From Florida, Tallahassee Lincoln finished eighth with 130.5 with Columbia Lake City 11th, Westside High 17th, Florida High 19th and Wiregrass Ranch 20th.
Heavyweight Derrek Mosley won an individual title at 285 with a 1-0 thriller against Jesus Riano of Coffee. Riano was a third place finisher last season for Coffee at the Georgia State Championships.
Top finisher for the Blue Devils were also senior Tazz Hampton at 106 who lost in the championship final to Lowndes High Scnhoo's Dominic DiTomasso 11-4. DiTomasso held a 19-1 season record with Hampton now at 12-1.
Also in second place, at 152, Cale Hoskinson lost to Coffee's Greg Lacoste 5-2 for his first loss of the season. Lacoste is now 28-1.
In Hoskinson' semifinal match, a brutal punch to his cheek bone stopped the match against Columbia's Matthew Smith before Hoskinson returned to win 9-4.
At 132, Abdiert Escobar took third with a semifinal loss to Valdosta's Jordan Hampton. an All State champion last year at 120 and fifth at 113 for Class 6A, via a 14-2 major decision before beating Columbia's Alex McGuigan in overtime 3-2 for third place.
Finishing fourth were Luke Davis at 126, Isaiah Clifford at 170 and Jordan Bell at 182. Dalton Huckleberry at 120, Joe Grelli at 195 and Garrett Tyre at 220 all finished fifth.