The Mountain Brook Spartan wrestling team celebrated its first state championship in program history.

Friday, January 20, 2023 – It’s only up from here. That was Mountain Brook High School wrestling coach Justin Ransom’s message after his team won their first state championship in program history on Friday morning, defeating Mortimer Jordan 32-27 in the 6A State Duals Championship in Bill Harris Arena.

The Spartans (14-4) found themselves down 6-3 after three individual matches before rattling off five consecutive victories propelling them to a 29-6 lead. Four straight wins for Mortimer Jordan cut the Spartan lead to eight (29-21). Then Nathan McCain secured the victory for Mountain Brook winning a 5-3 decision in the 13th of 14 matches.

Ransom, the winningest coach in Mountain Brook wrestling history (153 wins) praised his 44-person roster for their hard work and growth to achieve this level of success.

“Words can't explain this because we’ve challenged our guys to finish and they did,” he said. “I’m ready to win more and I think that’s in the near future. Our kids pay the price every day in practice.”

The duals championship title marks the 182nd team state championship in Mountain Brook Schools athletics history. The wrestling team will continue its season as it seeks to continue its wave of success as it competes for individual state championships in the traditional state tournament in Huntsville come February.

After Friday morning’s matches, each Spartan wrestler’s season record is as follows:

(Weight classification, name, record)

106 Wyatt Chavez 29-7

113 Stephen Springfield 36-7

120 Chris Brown 21-7

126 Doug Johnson 14-6

132 Bill Bradford 18-11

138 Nathan McCain 20-8

145 Stuart Andrews 19-9

152 Coleman Bates 27-8

160 Jude Smith 19-6

170 Sam Carroll 33-13

182 Jack Windle 27-4

195 Allen Baker 28-6

220 Will Courtenay 17-2

285 Daniel Ellis 11-4