Whiz Kids

Marietta Wrestler Wraps Up Career

Akeia Miles, believed to be the first female wrestler in Marietta High School history, capped off her career with a 30-17 senior season.

Akeia Miles remembers her first week wrestling. She was a sophomore at Marietta High School, having deciding to try out for the wrestling team. To see if she was serious, the coaches paired her with classmate Ardon Smith, one of the tougher wrestlers on the Blue Devils’ team. “I remember pain,” she said. “Ardon was tough.” But Miles stuck with it. It wasn’t like this was new to her. She grew up scrapping with her male cousins close to her age. When the week-long test was over, Marietta coach Tommy Carthers wondered if Miles would continue to wrestle. She did. And she brought a new pair of wrestling shoes to that Monday practice to prove it. “It was then we knew she was going to stick around,” Carthers said. It was a challenge at first for …

• Photos (6)

Top-Seeded Ardon Smith Captures Title

Marietta finished strong at the Cobb County Championships as Smith wrestled his way to the top.

With a hefty boost from 119-pound champion Ardon Smith, Marietta’s wrestling Blue Devils cracked the top five in the U.S. Army Cobb County Invitational at Sprayberry High School. Smith was a perfect 4-0, capping his run Saturday with a 5-2 decision over Pope’s Tucker Coltek in the championship final. The Blue Devils scored 125.5 points to place fourth behind four-time champion Pope (209), Kell (153) and Harrison (144). To reach the finals, Smith lived up to his top seeding, pinning McEachern’s Zach Murphy and decisioning Kennesaw Mountain’s Demarcus Thomas 7-1 after a first-round bye. Smith was one of six Blue Devils to finish in the top six. Blue Devil 103-pounder Akeia Miles, one of three girls to compete in the tournament, went 4-2 in …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (10)

Phil Taylor

6:51 am on Monday, January 24, 2011

Our apologies. We've made the correction. Congratulations to Ardon for an amazing championship title!   more ›

3 Blue Devils Advance to Semis

The buzz surrounding Perry Scott's huge upset was short-lived.

In perhaps the upset of the tournament so far, Marietta’s unseeded Perry Scott pinned Walton’s top-seeded 285-pounder Brad Noble just one minute into their opening-round match Friday in the U.S. Army Cobb County Invitational at Sprayberry High School. Scott’s glory was short-lived however, as he was pinned in overtime in the quarterfinals by Campbell’s Alex Cooke, but only after removing Noble from championship contention. Three Blue Devils still have a crack at a county title heading into Saturday’s competition: Ardon Smith (119), Austin Burris (125) and Lawton Ward (145). In the team race, Pope’s three-time champion Greyhounds have 104 points and 11 semifinalists, making it highly unlikely that they’ll be derailed from taking a fourth …

• Photos (26)

Marietta Grapplers Pin North Cobb

Blue Devil wrestlers register eight pins in 63-15 victory over North Cobb.

Whether it was perceived or real, Marietta High School senior Perry Scott sensed simply by a handshake that he could attack his opponent in the 285-pound division. “I noticed as soon as I shook his hand,” Scott said of North Cobb junior wrestler Marc Tester. “He wasn’t trying to squeeze my hand at all. I knew he was a casual guy, so I went right after him.” Scott, who has been injured most of the year, attacked Tester with an aggressive body slam and within 12 seconds recorded his first pin of the season. Scott’s pin was one of eight the Blue Devils collected against host North Cobb in a 63-15 win Wednesday. The victory improved Marietta’s season dual-match record to 7-7 and dropped the Warriors to 0-11. “He just came out and slammed me on…

• Photos (5)

Marietta Finishes Sixth in Region Duals Tournament

The Blue Devils' only win in the tournament came against last place Woodstock.

Marietta got pinned in five of its first seven matchups in the consolation semifinal match of the Region 5-AAAAA duals wrestling tournament Saturday at Lassiter. The result was a 38-0 hole that eventually led to a 44-27 defeat and the Blue Devils’ ouster from the tournament. Marietta went 1-2 in the tournament and finished in sixth place. Their lone win was a 42-27 decision over last place Woodstock. The Blue Devils struggled all day to generate points from their heavier-weight classification wrestlers. “We know we’re not as tough as we’d like to be in the heavyweights, so we’re kind of expecting some difficult results there,” said Marietta head coach Tommy Carthers. “The thing is we’ve just got to wrestle tough. We’ve got to stay off our …

• Photos (2)