Dunwoody senior wrestler Constantine Gavalas gave DeKalb County a state wrestling champion for the 12th time in the past 13 seasons with his run to the Class 6A 195 weight class gold medal at the recent GHSA Traditional State Wrestling Championships.

Gavalas won four consecutive matches to claim the gold and become the first DeKalb wrestler to win the gold undefeated since Southwest DeKalb’s Abdul Rahman-Yasin (38-0) in 2014 with a perfect 45-0 record in 2017.

The senior opened the 2017 Class 6A Championships with a quick pin of Jesse Booker of Forest Park in just 56 seconds to advance to the quarterfinals.

The quarterfinal match with John’s Creek’s Matthew Marsuzak was a grueling 3-2 decision in favor of Gavalas who would get to rest until the Saturday semifinals. Marsuzak would finish fifth overall in the tournament.

Gavalas would take the semifinal match by pin fall just 1:07 into the event over Alexander’s Connor Perry who would eventually finish fourth overall.

South Paulding’s Raji Brown was the opponent as Gavalas took to the mat in the championship round on Saturday evening. Brown had won two of his matches on the way to the finals by pin fall as well.

The two battled each other until the end with Gavalas pulling out a nice 5-2 victory to claim DeKalb’s first gold medal since McNair’s Jamaal Deng won the Class 3A 152 weight class in the 2015 state tournament.

Gavalas also claimed the 195 division gold in the DeKalb County Championships, the Area 7-6A Championships and the State Sectional title on his way to his undefeated championship season.

The win helped Dunwoody finish 17th overall in the Class 6A team standings with 35 points. Stephenson and Tucker finished 39th and 43rd overall.

Class 5A
Lithonia’s John Webb brought home the bronze medal from the Class 5A state tournament with his performance in the 126 weight class.

Webb (30-8) reached the semifinals with two consecutive wins to start the tournament before falling eventual state runner-up Vinnie Rosati of Woodland-Cartersville to drop into the consolation bracket semifinals.

A 10-6 decision over Southwest DeKalb’s Rodre Fears, the sixth place finisher at 126, propelled Webb into the bronze medal match against Decatur’s Kaden Spann whom he has lost to in the DeKalb County Championships 126 final.

Webb defeated Spann (41-10) by a pin fall 4:30 into the match to bring home the bronze medal.

Khyree Alexander of Arabia Mountain finished fourth in the Class 5A 132 weight class while Southwest DeKalb’s Eris Walker finished in sixth place at 220.

Southwest DeKalb finished 18th overall in the team standings with 28 points followed Lithonia at 21st with 21 points and Arabia Mountain was 22nd with 20 points.

Class 4A
Druid Hills had a pair of wrestlers place to take 22nd in the teams standings with a total of 26 points.

DeMarco Mosley came up just shy of a medal at 195 with a fourth place finish and Deshaun Baker was fifth at 220.

Class 7A
Lakeside finished 25th overall in the Class 7A team standings with 14.5 points.

Kamal Feracho managed a sixth place finish at 195 to lead the Vikings.

Class 3A
McNair managed to finish 28th overall in the Class 3A rankings.

Torrance Dumas picked up a fifth place ribbon to lead the Mustangs.