It was a title two decades in the making for the Gainesville High wrestling team.

Under second-year coach C.T. Hussion, the Red Elephants captured their first Hall County Duals championship Saturday at Flowery Branch High.

Gainesville had never placed higher than second at the 20th annual tournament, finishing as runner-up in 1995, '96 and last season.

"I'm proud of how these kids came out and wrestled," Hussion said. "It's all about matchups. It's just where you've got certain kids in the lineup."

After falling 44-33 to Flowery Branch, the Red Elephants kept their title hopes alive by knocking off then-leader Chestatee 45-36 in their final match. The win was made possible by some crafty lineup changes by Hussion.

After Chestatee coach Carey Whitlow forfeited his team's 171-pound weight class match in hopes of giving Gainesville defending state champion wrestler Aaron Glover an automatic win, Hussion shuffled his lineup, sending Rashad Hill to the mat and freeing up Glover to face Chestatee's Chris Stapler in the 189-pound weight class. The senior (6-0) claimed a technical fall against Stapler, 22-6.

"That was a good move by Gainesville," Whitlow said. "We were going to lose in that position anyway. No one here can beat Glover."

However, the suspense was far from over for Gainesville. The Red Elephants sat in the stands and watched their fate play out on the mat in the final match between second-year schools Chestatee and Flowery Branch.

The Falcons (4-2) had beaten Gainesville 44-33 in an earlier match, and a win against Chestatee would have likely given The Branch its first county title.

However, the War Eagles topped the Falcons 45-30, meaning both Chestatee and Gainesville finished with 5-1 records. Just when it looked like the Elephants had won the crown, Hall County coaches realized that there were no rules on the books to break ties between schools.

At a meeting following the tournament, Hall County coaches voted unanimously to make head-to-head competition the tiebreaker for similar records. Only then did Gainesville officially become champion.

"That's the only way to do that," Johnson coach Garry Glenn said. "How can you justify anything else? We're tied and you have beaten me head-to-head, you are whatever place that happens to be. That's why we said what we said."

Glover, who won the Hall County Championship at the 171-pound weight class, was named Most Outstanding Upperweight Wrestler.

"The only thing I was looking forward to was a state first-place medal, not really Hall County," said Glover, who finished with two pins, three technical falls and a win by forfeit. "It's an honor to get it, but I am worried more about state."

Much to his surprise, Flowery Branch senior Thomas Delaney was named Most Outstanding Lowerweight Wrestler.

"I didn't expect it at all," said Dulaney, who won the 130-pound weight class with four pins and two wins by forfeit. "It blew me away. It almost sat me down out there on the middle of the floor. I knew I had became champion when Dunfee forfeited against me. I guess pinning people quick is what won it for me."

Johnson finished tied 3-3 with West Hall in the team standings. The Spartans earned third place by virtue of a 47-36 win head-to-head.

"It was kind of an up-and-down tournament," Glenn said. "We can't seem to crack out of that .500 mode. Every time we go to a tournament, we'll go two-and-two or three-and-three."

East Hall (1-5) and North Hall (0-6) rounded out the standings. The teams tied 36-36 in their head-to-head match, but the Vikings won the third criterion, most pins. The Vikings had three pins to the Trojans' two. North Hall finished winless for the first time in history. Before this season, North Hall had finished in the top two of the event every year but two.

NOTES: Three of the 21 tournament matches ended in ties and were decided by criteria. Flowery Branch coach Shane Lancaster believes the three ties are a tournament record. "This is the most competitive tournament we've had in the last 12 years," Lancaster said. "We knew it was going to come down to the last matches." ... In the match between Chestatee and North Hall, Whitlow, the former Trojans coach, complained about a North Hall wrestler's shoe laces not being secured. A team point and match point was deducted from North Hall's final score as a result of the unsportsmanlike conduct infraction. "I wouldn't have said anything, but I just like to pick on them," a facetious Whitlow said.