The Dawson County wrestling team took part in two events last week and improved their overall record to 14–2.
The Tigers hosted a tri-meet on Dec. 4 featuring the Warriors out of White County and the Chestatee War Eagles from Gainesville.
Despite having forfeits in three of the 14 scheduled matches, the White County Warriors fought hard winning four matches with pins in the first or second round.
The teams battled into the final round in four additional match-ups but the Tigers held on to win all four tough fights, two by pin and two by score. Dawson County capped off the 54–24 victory with quick pins in the remaining three bouts.
The Chestatee War Eagles opened their time on the mat with two three-round duals and a pin to take an early lead, but the Tigers fought their way back with six pins in the middle and heavy weight fights and won two more close matches by decision to finish up the sweep with a 48–21 final score.
Dawson County then traveled to Union County for a series of matches against two teams from the north Georgia region and two teams from North Carolina.
Starting the day against the Chattooga Indians out of Summerville, the Tigers started the match with an early lead as the Indians forfeited four weight classes on the day. Dawson County built on that lead with four pins and two wins by decision and brought their winning streak to three matches with a final score of 51–21.
Having traveled form Andrews High School in Andrews, N.C., the Wildcats gave up a quick 30 points to the Tigers as they did not field wrestlers in five of the 14 weight categories.
Dawson County made short work of the wrestlers that did take the floor as the Tigers won all but one match by pin and overwhelmingly defeated the Wildcats 78–3.
The Dawson County win streak stopped at four as the Tigers faced off against the Banks County Leopards in their third match of the evening. Despite forfeiting four matches overall, the Leopards fought their way to a narrow 42–38 victory pinning the Tigers six times along the way and fighting one match to a draw.
In the final contest of the day the Tigers looked to bounce back against another team from North Carolina, the Swain County Maroon Devils, and started the match on even terms as both teams forfeited one weight class. Not a single fight ended in the first round and as the teams traded pins and decisions the Tigers found themselves entering the final bout of the day needing a pin to win the contest.
Wyatt Smith entered the circle against J. Sauza of the Maroon Devils and they fought deep into the third round as Smith managed to gain the lead in points, but the pin eluded him until the last 9 seconds when he finally managed to hold Sauza down long enough to get the call and secure the victory for himself and the Dawson County Tigers by a final score of 42–31.
“Yes, the team win did hinge on the final match, but we felt pretty good going into that match as Smith is one of my top wrestlers,” said Head Coach Arron Haynes. “The two that came up huge were sophomore Logan Buytendorp and senior Kevin Arias, both getting much needed pins to set up the final showdown for Wyatt Smith to bring it home.”