By Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



Titles stay in North Jefferson County

The 5A, 189-pound and heavyweight state titles stayed in the North Jefferson area for a second straight year.

In 2007, Gardendale’s Tripp Otis won the 189-pound title and this year the crown moved cross county to Morris as Mortimer Jordan’s Rob Glenn won the title.

In 2007, Gardendale’s Chad Bearden won the heavyweight title for a third straight year. Last Saturday the title stayed in Gardendale as Joe Jones won the heavyweight crown.



Five reach the big 5-Oh

Five local wrestlers finished the year with more than 50 wins, lead by Fultondale’s Alec Williams, who won 61 matches. Also passing the 50-win mark were Fultondale’s Brett Pennington and Chris Self with 55 and 54 wins, respectively and Mortimer Jordan’s Brandon Brindley and James Stewart, who won 52 and 51 wins respectively.



Scoreboard not complete

The move of the state wrestling tournament from the Pelham Civic Center to the Von Braun Center in Huntsville brought about many changes to event. One was the absence of the large wooden scoreboard that become a fixture over the years at Pelham, showing all the team scores in each classification.

At this year’s tourney, a scrolling scoreboard showed only the top five teams in each classifications following each round. Many fans didn’t know where their team stood until after the tournament until the saw the next day’s paper.



Youth was served

In the 5A, 103-pound final, neither competitor is in high school yet. Mortimer Jordan’s Brandon Brindley and Scottsboro’s Craig Malone are both eighth graders.



Williams doesn’t waste time

A high school wrestling match lasts six minutes in regulation. Fultondale’s Alec Williams needed only five minutes to win all three of matches at this year’s state tournament.

In the championship quarterfinals of the 1A-4A, 152-pound class Williams pinned Elmore County’s Codie Campbell in 1:05.

In the semi-finals, he pinned Saks’ Miles Wilson in one minute.

Then in the finals, he pinned Walter Welborn’s Chris Smith in 2:55, for a total of three matches in only 5:00.



Brindley suffers first takedown of season

When Scottsboro’s Malone took down Mortimer Jordan’s Brindley with 54 seconds left in the second period of their finals match, it was the first time this season anyone had scored on Brindley.

The only points the Blue Devil wrestler had allowed up to that point was on escapes, when he let his opponent go, so he could take him down again.