In a busy week of action, three Dawson County varsity wrestlers placed at the Coal Mountain Classic Saturday, Dec. 17, while four placed at the Viking Christmas Clash Thursday, Dec. 22.
With over 10 schools participating at each meet, the highly competitive events posed challenges to a Tigers team looking to continue its progress made this season.
While many wrestlers gave concerted efforts that resulted in placements, the top finish of the week went to freshman Landon Glander, who won the 113-pound weight class at the Viking Christmas Clash hosted by East Hall.
Coming in as runner-up in the 175-pound class was Alex Stewart, while Mason Rosenberg finished third in the 106-pound class and Max Lowe earned fourth in the 113-pound class.
(Story continues below)At the Coal Mountain Classic hosted by North Forsyth, Stewart, Glander and Noah Roberson all put in the work to finish fourth, fifth and sixth in their respective weight classes.
After falling short in his first match, Stewart defeated Devan Gupta of Lovett and Hunter Brown of Gilmer before falling short in the third-place match against Peter Souder of Woodward Academy.
Glander also dropped his first match before winning against Dukari Brooks of East Forsyth and Jack Mixon of Lovett.
Glander lost to Xavier Martinez of North Forsyth before winning the fifth-place match against Ty Warren of Creekview.
Roberson lost his opening match in the 150-pound weight class but defeated Dustin Kytle of Mount Vernon School.
Roberson would drop the next two matches to finish sixth overall.
The Coal Mountain Classic and Viking Christmas Clash served as important experiences for the team as the season heads into a busy stretch.
Dawson traveled to East Hall for the Viking Christmas Clash on Dec. 22 and will head back home to host the Amicalola Classic on Friday, Dec. 30.
After that, the team will have Area Duals the weekend of Friday, Jan. 6, before hosting their Senior Night on Tuesday, Jan. 10.
Earlier this month, the Dawson wrestling team had some notable accomplishments.
At the North Oconee Duals on Saturday, Dec. 3, Rosenberg won all five of his matches in one of the strongest overall showings this season.
Sophomore Savannah Tate Bonnell, the only female wrestler on the varsity squad, earned her first career varsity win that day.
Jesus Arroyo went up a weight class and won a match against Wesleyan at the North Oconee Duals.
The Tigers will hit the mat starting at 9 a.m. at the Amicalola Classic.