DAHLONEGA -- The Long County Lady Blue Tide wrestling team made history this season as they won their first area championship. They continued their historic season when they competed in the state duals championship on Saturday, January 25.

The team battled icy roads on their way up to north Georgia and hit the mat early Saturday morning in their quarterfinals match against the Oglethorpe County Patriots.

Maddison Chambers started things out for the Lady Tide as she got a first round pin victory in the 140-pound class. Aliana Morales gave them a 12-0 lead with her own second round pin in 145.

A forfeit win for the Patriots at 155 made it 12-6 and a first round pin victory in the 170-pound class tied things at 12-12.

Sala Tiapula took a first-period pin in the 190-pound class before a forfeit win for Tymiah Powell in the 235-pound class gave the Lady Tide a 24-12 as the match came to the lightweights.

Two more first-round pins by Mackenzie Spurgeon (100) and Aleena Clark (105) gave them a commanding 36-12 lead.

Three straight second-period pins for the Patriots got them back into the match before a forfeit in the 125-pound class tied the score at 36-36.

Senior Kaiden Boshers, a wrestling commit to John Carroll University, took the mat knowing either a victory or a loss other than by pinfall as the 135-pound match would be an automatic win for the Lady Tide with a forfeit.

Boshers took an early lead in the first period and ended up securing the pin as the Lady Tide won 48-36 after the forfeit victory.

This pushed the Tide on to the winner’s bracket semifinals and set them up a match with host Lumpkin County.

The Indians took an early 18-0 lead on two first-period pins and a forfeit before Tiapula and Powell got first-period pins of their own to get back within six points.

Spurgeon got pinned in the second period but Clark got a first-period pin to make the score 24-18 in favor of the Indians. Two straight pins for the Indians seemed to put the match out of reach.

Haniyah Coleman came up at 120 pounds and she needed to win by pinfall to keep the Tide in reach of a victory in the match. She won by technical fall in the third as she won 16-1 and made the score 36-23. A forfeit for the Lady Tide at 125 put the match out of reach as they trailed by 19 points with only 18 possible points left.

They dropped the last three matches by pin and fell 60-23 to the consolation bracket.

In the consolation semifinals, the Lady Tide looked to get to the third place match as they took on Chestatee.

In the 155-pound class, the War Eagles took a forfeit victory before a pin in the 170 pound class made it 12-0 early.

Tiapula got a pin before Powell got a forfeit of her own to tie the match.

Spurgeon and Clark were pinned in their matches before a technical fall made the score 29-12. Two more pins and a forfeit win for the War Eagles pushed the match out of reach as they fell behind 47-12.

The final score of the match was 52-24 as the Lady Tide’s run in the state duals championship tournament came to an end. They finished in the top six, their best run in team history.

Lumpkin County eventually won the Division 2 state championship.

They will have about a week to prepare for the traditional (individual) portion of the postseason. The area traditional tournament will be on January 31 at Houston County High School.

Traditional sectionals are on February 7 at Houston County High School and the state traditionals championships are February 13-15 at the Macon Centreplex.