It was a busy week for the Dawson County varsity wrestling team. On Friday and Saturday the team traveled to Towns County High School for the King of the Mountain wrestling tournament.
Coach Arron Haynes' team fared well and came away with third place out of 23 teams.
The Tigers accumulated 209 points, just behind runner-up North Hall who had 214 points. Banks County captured the team title with 272 points.
The Tigers had three wrestlers that won their weight class and a tournament championship.
Justin Evans (106 pounds), Cory Jenkins (132 pounds) and Gavin Brown (182 pounds) all were tournament champions with perfect 4-0 records.
Evans defeated Chris McCrackin of Banks County in the finals. Jenkins picked up a championship with a win over Vonya Baldwin of Towns County. Brown won his first place match over Eli Smallwood of Banks County.
Anthony Underwood (113 pounds) and Evan Kells (170 pounds) picked up second place medals in the tournament.
Underwood lost to Taylor Marrett of North Hall and Kells lost to Hayden Dilbeck of Banks County in the finals.
Both finished with 3-1 records.
Taking home a fourth place medal for Dawson County were Harrison Adams (126 pounds) and Levi Presley (145 pounds). Both Tiger wrestlers had a 6-2 record for the tournament.
Also competing in different weight classes this weekend were: Quade Buytendorp (120 pounds), Coty Greer (138 pounds), Gilbert Pruitt (152 pounds), Zach Guy (160 pounds), Brett Whalen (195 pounds), Jacob Haberkam (220 pounds) and Harley Vaughn (285 pounds).
Earlier in the week Dawson County hosted a tri-match with Towns County and Mt. Pisgah.
The Tigers dominated both matches and defeated Towns County, 75-2, and Mt. Pisgah, 57-21.
Dawson County is currently 6-4 in dual matches.
"Right now I am getting a lot of physical wrestling out of the boys," Haynes said. "I have yet to find a single wrestler that has any quit in him. A couple of people who come to mind are Coty Greer in his match against Mt. Pisgah, where he was caught in a pin and fought it for almost a minute only to come back in the next period and take charge of the match and drag his opponent back in for the pin.
"Jacob Haberkam, who is new to the program, has turned out to be one of our most physical and tenacious wrestlers. Bottom line is that the boys I have right now just plain hate to lose."
There are seven seniors on this year's squad: Cory Jenkins, Evan Kells, Danny Maciolek, Levi Pressley, Anthony Underwood, Harley Vaughn and manager Paige Reece.
Other members of this year's team are juniors: Colton Chester, Coty Greer, Zach Guy, Haberkam, Ryan Jones, Josh Litherland, Shelby Munda (manager), Isaac Rice and Keaton Toal. Sophomores: Gavin Brown, Quade Buytendorp, Justin Evans, CJ Frankland, Kevin Gonzalez, Stephen Hermann, Kyle Kimbral, Connor McGrew, Gilbert Pruitt, Tobie Styles and Brett Whalen. Freshman: Harrison Adams, Brenden Capps, Trey Maciolek, John Ramirez, Chaz Slaton, Jonathon Steele, Camryn Geiger (manager), Jessica Lovingood (manager), Jorden Thompson (manager) and Katie Williamson (manager).
The Tigers will wrestle at Towns County on Friday and at Fannin County on Saturday. Friday's match will begin at 4 p.m., while Saturday's match will start at 9 a.m.