Courtesy of Sonny Kennedy

The sectionals will take place this weekend around the state as individual wrestlers will come together at 12 locations in order to qualify for the state meets. There are two sectional meets per classification and the top eight individuals from each sectional qualify for the state traditional wrestling meet, which is held in Macon Feb. 15-16.

For metro Atlanta teams, the No. 1 team in Class AAAAAA, Archer, is the heavy favorite to win the traditional title after its duals title last month. In Class AAAAA, top-ranked Pope, thought to be the best team in the state outside of Archer, is favored to repeat as traditional champ after sweeping last year’s titles. Woodward Academy should be a threat in Class AAA while Holy Innocents’ has an outside shot in Class A.

AREA RESULTS …

Class AAAAAA No. 1 Archer had 12 of 14 wrestlers win their respective weight classes at the Area 8-AAAAAA meet Saturday at Parkview. … Chattahoochee nipped host North Forsyth 201-200 at the Area 6-AAAAAA meet. … Host Rockdale County won Area 2-AAAAAA. … In Area 3-AAAAAA, Douglas County won and host East Coweta came in second. Douglas County had seven individual winners, including five straight from 170 pounds, 182, 195, 220 and 285. … In Area 7-AAAAAA, traditional power Collins Hill won yet another area championship, this time holding off North Gwinnett 225.5 to 221.5 at Norcross. Collins Hill had five individual winners and North Gwinnett had four. … Roswell won the Area 5-AAAAAA meet at Wheeler by outdistancing second-place Cherokee. … In Class AAAAA, No. 1 Pope won the Area 7 meet with nine individual champions at Creekview. … In Area 6-AAAAA, Southwest DeKalb won five weight classes to take the area crown at Dunwoody. Lakeside-DeKalb came in second and Stephenson third. … Area 6-AAAA was won by Marist, which had 225.5 points and eight individual champions. Lithonia came in second place. … Woodward Academy took the Area 3-AAA title in a meet that the War Eagles hosted. Dawson County was second and McNair came in third.