Photo courtesy of Dawn Harrison.
Homewood’s Sam Sutton wrestles at the state tournament and placed third in his weight class..
The Homewood High School wrestling team wrapped up the season at the state tournament in Huntsville in mid-February. The Patriots placed fifth in the Class 5A-6A division, accumulating 88 points.
The battle for the state title was tightly contested. Mortimer Jordan scored 125.5 points to win it all, while Arab was a close second with 119 points. McAdory racked up 112.5 for third place, and Gardendale was fourth with 107.5. Homewood edged Jasper, Moody and Scottsboro for fifth, as all three were close behind.
Joe Galvan was the top Patriots wrestler, as he finished second in the 138-pound class. He advanced to the final with wins over Scottsboro’s Thomas Rackler, Gulf Shores’ Taylor Cheek and Fort Payne’s Hayden Davis. In the final, he was defeated by Moody’s Cory Land.
Moeen Almansoob (113) and Sam Sutton (132) each placed third in their respective weight classes. Almansoob took down Southside-Gadsden’s Peyton Adams and Moody’s Erius Clark before dropping a match to Pike Road’s John Duncan in the semifinals. But Almansoob rallied to win the consolation semifinal over McAdory’s William Miller and the third-place match over Clark.
Sutton beat Jasper’s Antonio Nash and Fort Payne’s Cole Blalock before falling to Gardendale’s Daishon Powe in the semifinals. But like Almansoob, Sutton beat Pike Road’s William Duncan and Blalock once again to claim third.
Graham Miner (120) and Hanif Muhammad (126) were fifth. Both wrestlers won four of their six matches in the tournament.
Buddy Ketcham (106), Carson Reaves (145), Jordan Cottrell (152), Blas Correa (160) and Cole Bedics (182) also competed at state for Homewood.
