The Dunwoody Wildcats claimed their fourth William Venable DeKalb County Wrestling Championships title in the past five seasons at Dunwoody on Saturday. (Courtesy Photo)
Twelve Dunwoody wrestlers placed in the Top 5 of their respective weight classes as the Wildcats reclaimed the William Venable DeKalb County Wrestling Championships title for the fourth time in five years after coming up short a year ago.
The Wildcats racked up 246 points with three gold, three silver, three bronze, two fourth place and one fifth place finish to defeat defending champion Southwest DeKalb (175.5) and third place Marist (174) in a field of 20 competing teams. Dunwoody had a wrestler finish fifth or better in all but two weight classes (150, 190).
Dunwoody was led by three-time county champion Charlie Ruark who won the 126 title over Southwest DeKalb’s Jordan Allen by a score of 11-5. Ruark won the 113 title in 2022 and the 120 gold in 2023.
Andrew Fidler joined Ruark in the winners’ circle as he pulled out a hard-fought, 2-1 victory over Stone Mountain’s MeKhel Cills to take the gold in the 132-weight class.
The third Wildcat to claim gold was Adam Gromatzky as he pinned Decatur’s Ronin Simms in the 165 final.
Nine Southwest DeKalb wrestlers placed in the Top 6 of their weight classes including three gold medal finishes and two silver to garner the second-place finish in the team standings.
Dunwoody’s Charlie Ruark (left in blue) and Southwest DeKalb’s Isaiah Scott (right) became three-time DeKalb County wrestling champions this past weekend. (Photos by Mark Brock)
Three-time county champion Isaiah Scott collected his third consecutive county gold in the 215-weight class via pin fall over Stone Mountain’s Alonzo James. Scott won the 215 gold in 2022 and 2023.
Anthony Colquitt brought home the gold in the 157-weight class by defeating Marist’s Parks Kaiser 6-4 in a highly contested match. Malik Colquitt joined the gold medal winners for Southwest DeKalb by pin fall over Redan’s LaDamian Stewart in the 150 class. It was a move up from silver for Colquitt from the 2023 championships.
Marist’s Forrest Briesacher moved up from the 106 division to 120 this year and picked up his second consecutive gold medal in the championships. Briesacher battled Dunwoody’s Alex McKissick in a 9-6 victory. Marist had 10 wrestlers place on the day including two silver and three bronze medals.
Stone Mountain finished fourth in the team standings with 153 points by collecting one gold, three silver and one bronze performance to go with a fourth and a fifth place along the way. Zahyr Cronk picked up the gold for the Pirates as he took down Marist’s Mason Forsberg by pin fall.
Stephenson was fifth with 140.5 points as the last team to collect over 100 in the championships. Stephenson’s Artavius Hughes collected his first gold medal in three tries as he pulled out a 12-10 win over Stone Mountain’s Dontavious Perry in the 106 final. Hughes had won silver in 2022 and bronze in 2023.
Miller Grove’s Tyrone Williams wrestled his way to the 144-weight class gold medal in the DeKalb County Wrestling Championships and earned the meet’s Most Valuable Wrestler Award. (Courtesy Photo)
Victor Folks gave Stephenson its second gold of the meet to go with the team’s three bronze medals as well as one fourth and one fifth place finish. Folks won a 6-3 decision over Tucker’s Andrew Moreau for the gold medal.
Arabia Mountain (83.5) finished seventh in the team standings with five wrestlers taking sixth over better. Langston Blakeley had finished with silver medals in 2022 (182) and 2023 (175) but came out on top with a 7-1 victory over Dunwoody’s David Remigailo to collect his first gold medal in the competition.
Towers (74) took eighth over in the team rankings with three Top 5 finishes led by a gold medal in the 138 division. John Griffin became the first Titan to win gold since Stevenson Derival claimed back-to-back gold medals in 2014-15. Griffin defeated Dunwoody’s Colin Murphy 12-8 to win the title.
Tucker (70) followed Arabia Mountain and Towers in ninth place by collecting a gold, a silver and a fifth-place finish in the individual competitions. Antez Starks Jr. repeated as the 285-weight class champion with a quick pin of Southwest DeKalb’s Amir Ferguson making him his third win by fall in the meet.
Miller Grove’s Tyrone Williams captured the gold medal in the 144 division via a technical fall over Lakeside’s Bennett Hammett to become Miller Grove’s third wrestler to claim gold in the championships and the first since 2016.Williams won his first match by pin and took a convincing 15-5 in his second to reach the finals. His performance earned him being named the meet’s Most Valuable Wrestler.
See link below for team and top 6 finishers and completed brackets: