Perry wrestling finish most successful team season in program history

The Perry Panthers wrestling program was having a great season heading into the state finals in Macon last weekend. Now this season will go down as the best in program history following a fourth overall finish in AAAA. “The highest finish in Perry High School history,” typed long time Panthers head coach Randy Moss in a recent text message. “We are very excited about our fourth place finish as a team. Being able to compete with the top teams in the state says something about our program, 40-plus wrestlers and our wrestling family.”

Perry High School had recently hosted hundreds of wrestling programs and their fans for the AAAA and AAAAAAA sectionals a week ago. The momentum from having a stellar performance carried the Panthers to Macon and on to the best team finish in program history.

A key reason for that impressive finish has a lot to do with some of the individual highmarks achieved by Panthers wrestlers. Zeke Taylor won the AAAA 195-pound state title while Triston Thiel finished as the state runner-up at 152 pounds. Austin Thiel (113), a two-state champion, also comes home with a state title. Walker Passinault (106) placed fourth in his class while Shashoni Williams (182) placed sixth overall in his class, one of the most competitive and athletic in the sport. 

“I am proud of our individual finishers,” said Moss. “They wrestled their tails off the entire weekend and represented our program extremely well. We are able to do this without a middle school and youth program.”

“Our kids are amazing.”

Amazing and now the standard bearers for Perry wrestling from this point forward.