photo courtesy of Amber Cloy; www.AmberCloy.Shootproof.com/gallery/ghsastate

Welcome to our first high school state recap of 2020! Last weekend, Macon, Georgia, was the host site for the GHSA State Championships. This marked the high school state tournament season’s unofficial start, and more power states will be in action this week.

For years The Open Mat has heaped praise upon Georgia for its improvement from an afterthought on the national scene to a key player. Georgia has two of the top 50 wrestlers in the Class of 2021 and four in the top 50 in the Class of 2022. That doesn’t include student-athletes that have gone out of state for high school, either. Georgia’s firepower was on display at the 2020 Super 32 as they put four wrestlers in the finals and two came away with championship belts.

The lack of a DI program in-state hasn’t had a negative impact on Georgia at the collegiate level either. 12 Georgia natives qualified for the DI NCAA Tournament in 2019 and while that number dropped to nine last season, there was still plenty of talent. Taylor Lujan (Northern Iowa) earned the top-seed at 184 lbs and missed out on an opportunity to become the first wrestler from Georgia to win a DI title.

As you’ll notice below, Georgia has six classifications at the public school level, which is way too much. The state’s performance at national-level events has negated that fact, though.

Georgia also has sanctioned girls’ high school wrestling. The girls are in their third year of competition and the overall talent level in the state continues to increase. Three of the top-31 girls in the Class of 2021 hail from Georgia.

We’ve combed through the brackets and found some interesting items from the 2021 Georgia State Championships, along with state champions and wrestlers that achieved significant milestones.

State Champions