Bob Jones sets individual and team records in state wrestling
Runner-up Sparkman gets first girls state champion
HUNTSVILLE — Bob Jones set team and individual records in the Alabama High School Athletic Association State Wrestling tournament at the Von Braun Center.
The Patriots placed third in Class 7A for their best-ever finish thanks, in part, to three champions and seven placers. Bob Jones, which won a Duals state title in 2018 and was the Duals state runner-up in 2019, never had more than one state champion in a single season.
That collective effort came one week after the Patriots placed third in the 7A North Section series at Birmingham.
“This year was a smoother transition because they already knew me,” second-year coach Joe Hill said. “I think the biggest thing this year is they really came together as a group. They pushed each other more.”
Bob Jones’ three champions, each of whom claimed their first state title, featured Zander Samargia in the 138-pound weight class; Kaden Clark, 157; and Sheldon Sharp, 285.
Samargia, a senior and four-time state qualifier who has signed with West Liberty, a Division II school in West Virginia, handily dispatched Alexander Rivardo of Sparkman 18-0 in a technical fall.
“I think it was committing to everything in practice. I made that choice this year,” said Samargia, whose previous best finish at states was fourth last year.
Clark, a sophomore, won the closest match, 2-1 in overtime over Sparkman’s Sean Lydon. Clark was coming off a narrow 7-5 win over Lydon in the section tourney.
“I knew that if I kept pressure, pressure, pressure; then he’d break,” said Clark, a four-time state qualifier and state runner-up last year.
Sharp, who finished fifth at states last year, defeated Oak Mountain’s Evan Smith 14-3.
Finishing fourth in their respective weight classes were Josiah White, 106; Jacob Reyes, 120; and Carter Lindsey, 150. Jackson Caballero, 165, placed fifth. In all, the Patriots had 11 state qualifiers, which in included Nathan Carbonneau, Elijah Wortham, Greyson Samargia and Kyla Harris, the lone girl.
In the girls competition, Sparkman set a school record as a state runner-up and got its first-ever girls champion in Maria Contreras at 120. The only other wrestler from Sparkman to win a state title was Patrick Harris, currently Huntsville’s coach, in 1997.
“She doesn’t stop,” Sparkman coach Cody Schrock said of Contreras, who last year wrestled on the junior varsity team. “She doesn’t gas out, plain and simple.”
The Senators, who actually won the 7A state girls title as a pilot program in 2023, were led by state finalists Contreras and Kalea Loving, who wrestled at 165 and was a state runner-up for the second straight year.
Additionally, Selah Schrock placed third at 138 with fourth-place finishes by Josie Workman, 132; and Makiya Mcrae, 145.
