The Southwest DeKalb Panthers wrestled to eight Top 3 finishes, including four gold medals, to jump past 2016 champion McNair and runner-up Decatur to capture the 2017 DeKalb County (DCSD) Junior Varsity Wrestling Championship on their home mats just before the holiday break.
Southwest DeKalb finished with a team total of 171.50 followed by McNair (151.00), Decatur (129.00), Stephenson (107.00) and Lithonia 79.50 to round out the Top 5 teams finishes.
Gold medal performances by J. Williams (106), Coby Ficklin (120), Homer Brown (160) and Eris Walker (285) gave the Panthers four wrestlers with their hands raised at the end of their championship matches. All four went 3-0 in the tournament.
Eric Hall (145) and J. Gibbs (152) captured silver in their weight classes while J. Lewis (132) and Alonzo Farley (138) grabbed bronze medals. C. Harvey (106) was fourth behind Williams in the 106 division.
McNair’s runner-up finish was paced by seven Top 3 finishes, including gold medal performances by Torrance Dumas (145), Terrence Randle (170) and Reano Ramjag (195). Silver medals went to Jacorey Bush (138) and Mario Rodriquez (285).
Bronze medals going to Mustang wrestlers included Andrew Harris (152) and Adamas Brooksbegh (220).
Decatur came up short of any gold medals, but had two silver and four bronze on the day. Cullen Carter (126) and Isa Hardey (195) were class runners-up for the Bulldogs.
Stephenson picked up a pair of gold medals to grab fourth place in the team standings. Micah Godwin went 4-0 in the 182 weight class and Jamal McDonald was 3-0 to win the 220 class.
Darren Graham (113) won the gold to lead Lithonia to its fifth place finish in the team standings.
Other gold medal winners included sixth place Redan’s Nasar Lassiter (132) and Deljuane Mitchell (152) who both went a perfect 3-0 in tournament action.
Chamblee’s Bart Turney (138) was 4-0 in his division and Miller Grove’s Miguel Bynum was 3-0 to win the 126 division.