Coming into the State Sectionals at on Saturday, and Central Gwinnett had two legitimate chances of producing at least one champion. Both teams boasted of an undefeated grappler. And both remained undefeated as Archer's 103-pounder defeated Valdosta's Darshawn Sharp 5-4 on a reversal late in the third round and Jacob Aiken-Phillips defeated Mill Creek's Austin Hagen 6-3.
"I took him a little too lightly," Milhoff said. "He's one heck of a wrestler. I've been more mat wrestler most of my life than a neutral position guy. Basically I just squeezed and held on."
The match was almost with controversy as the clock operator did not start the clock for approximately five seconds. With 18 seconds left, Milhoff just had to hang on for the win but it was more like 23-25 seconds as the clock operator was just watching while coaches and fans were yelling to start the clock. Milhoff didn't let that bother him. "You can't let it come down to that," Milhoff said. "You gotta have a shoe in and got to be able to overcome it."
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Milhoff briefly injured his leg during the match, but said he wouldn't let that effect his concentration on winning the biggest match of the year. "This is your one opportunity. I've never wrestled him before," he said. "He's one (heck) of a wrestler. It hurts. Your going to get bruises and pain. It's wrestling. You just have to get through it." Milhoff is currently 49-0 on the year and will go to the state meet next week at the Arena at Gwinnett Center. "I think we are in the same boat," Milhoff explained. "We haven't had a chance to wrestle too many good guys. We went at it and was fortunate enough to end up on top. It was cool to have the crowd going for you. It was very cool. It was very fun."
Central Gwinnett's heavyweight Jacob Aiken-Phillips now had to match his lightweight counterpart as he took on Mill Creek's Austin Hagen. Aiken-Phillips jumped out to a 2-0 lead but Hagen scored an escape at the end of the first period to cut it to 2-1. The undefeated heavyweight then scored three points in the second round to take a commanding 5-1 lead into the final period and held on for a 6-3 victory and go to 63-0. Hagen is 31-2 with both losses coming to Aiken-Phillips.
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"I like to get up and if I do something wrong I can just belly out," explained Aiken-Phillips. "I'd still be in the lead." He knows that next week will be just as tough or tougher. "I just have to go out and battle," he said. "I got to get the points and take it to them."
The top eight qualify while the 9th place finisher is an alternate. Archer had Dequan Olbert finish 7th in the 112-weight class, Dallas Brown of qualified in the 119-weight class finished third while Joe Durnell of Archer qualified 6th in the same class. Archer's Isaiah Hunt qualified fourth in the 130-pound weight class. Archer's Zach Wright finished 5th in the 135. The Tigers had Varsay Sesay qualify at 152 by finishing fifth. Ernest Alexander of Archer qualified at 189 and Mountain View's Jamal Tull qualified at 8th in the same weight class. Hunter McClesky who had a big win in the quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory qualified fourth in the 215 for Archer. Mountain View's Zonta Laney finished 7th in the Heavyweight to qualify for the state individual meet next week.
