The Dawson County wrestling team competed in the Area Wrestling Championships last Friday and Saturday at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville. Head Coach Arron Haynes’ team was able to qualify four wrestlers for this weekend’s sectionals, which will be held at Jefferson High School.
Although no Tigers captured a first place finish, two Tiger wrestlers came in second place.
James Evans (112 pounds) lost in the finals to Cason Thurmond of Jefferson and Preston Adams (145 pounds) lost to Wayne Elliott of Jefferson. Both Evans and Adams will advance.
Capturing third place and a chance to move on to sectionals was David Wood at 125 pounds.
Finishing in fourth place was Charlie Short at 135 pounds. Short will also wrestle this weekend in Jefferson.
Fifth place finishers for Dawson County were: Micheal Jenkins (152 pounds), Tony Sleigh (171 pounds), Zach Paz (189 pounds) and Travis Dawson (130 pounds). These four wrestlers will be alternates at sectionals. In case on an injury or illness, these Tiger wrestlers will step in to replace anyone in their weight class.
Cory Jenkins (103 pounds), Timothy Blythe (119 pounds) and Jaziel Bustamante (285 pounds) came in sixth place this past weekend for the Tigers.
“I was pleased, considering we are so young,” Haynes said.
Jefferson captured their 10th straight region crown under Head Coach Doug Thurmond. All 14 Dragon wrestlers qualified for state. Ten Jefferson wrestlers finished as champions in the Area meet.
The Dragons dominated with 278 points. Banks County was distant second with 163, North Oconee was third with 155 and Riverside took fourth place with 90 points. Rounding out the rest of the nine-team field was East Jackson (73.5), Fannin County (69), Dawson County (66), Walnut Grove (36) and Oglethorpe County (7).
The top eight wrestlers at sectionals will qualify for the state tournament in two weeks at the Gwinnett Arena.
Weigh-ins will be between 2-4 p.m. this Friday at Jefferson. The first round of 16 will be on four mats and be from 5-8 p.m. Quarterfinals will begin at 8 p.m. The first round of wrestle backs will start at 9:30 p.m.
The second round of wrestle backs will continue on Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. All final matches are set to begin at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.