In football, a perfect season means winning 14 or 15 straight games. Now imagine having to play 90 games and still having a perfect season.
Macon Edwards, a sophomore from Fultondale, Alabama, ended his 2016 wrestling season with a perfect 90-0 record. That is one short of the all-time win record, according to the National Federation of State High School Athletic Associations. Colton Palmer, from Durham Riverside in North Carolina, holds the record of 91-0, which he reached in the 2006-07 season.
Edwards won his 90th win when he beat Zach Clayton (Dora) by a 6-3 decision in the 106-pound state final at the Alabama Class 1A-5A championship.
Going undefeated has been a goal of Edwards’ for a few years. He attended the Alabama High School Athletic Association Wrestling Championship in 2011 and saw Brandon Womack finish 74-0.
“I thought, ‘That’d be cool if I could ever do something like that,’” Edwards told Al.com. “It’s been a goal.”
Edwards set the AHSAA single-season mark for wins in the North Super Section championship match last week. The previous record was 85 wins. He was awarded All-American status last summer at the Cadet/Junior National Championships in Fargo, South Dakota. Some of Macon’s other goals include winning an individual national title in Fargo and earning a wrestling scholarship to Oklahoma State.
At 5-foot-3, Macon wrestles in the 106-pound class. In many of his matches, his opponents outweigh him almost 15 pounds.
“You go to nationals and tell them that you’re from Alabama, and they just start laughing,” Macon said. “They think it’s easy down here. I want to show that we can compete, that we’re just as good as Pennsylvania or Ohio or Iowa.”
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