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Wednesday,
February 13,2013
Tribune & Qeorgian
Sports
Wildcats hold court
Camden County High tennis teams get season
started at Tift tournament.
see 2B
B Section
Andy Diffenderfer | Tribune & Georgian
Camden County’s Kevin McKenzie (22) takes a little punishment while de
fending Lowndes’ chargingTremayneTippins.
Wildcats close regular
season with defeats
Andy Diffenderfer
sports@tribune-georgian.com
The Camden County boys
headed to the Region 1-AAAAAA
tournament 8-17 overall and 2-10 in
the league after closing the regular
season with weekend losses to
Lowndes and Coffee. The Wildcats
were scheduled to meet Colquitt on
Monday night in the first round of
the region tournament at Valdosta
High, with two wins needed at the
tourney to make state.
The chances for the Wildcats to
put away visiting Lowndes on Fri
day were there long before a dou
ble-overtime conclusion and a 99-
97 Senior Night setback, a game in
which the hosts put five players in
double figures and shot to a 14-
point lead in the first half.
Lowndes fought its way back be
hind the sharpshooting of Justin
Williams, who put down nine three-
pointers, with seven treys and 25
points coming after halftime.
Williams canned five threes and
scored 16 points in the third quarter
alone, in which the Vikings extri
cated themselves from a nine-point
hole and went to the fourth on even
terms.
See CATS, page 2B
’Cats send 11 to state
Walthour wins ijo bracket at sectionals
Submitted photo
A.J. Walthour will be among the wrestlers representing Camden
County at the state tournament beginning Thursday in Macon.
Andy Diffenderfer
sports@tribune-georgian.com
A.J. Walthour won the 170-
pound division and was one of
11 Camden County High
wrestlers to qualify for state
during the Class AAAAAA East
sectional last weekend at Chat
tahoochee High School just
north of Atlanta.
J.J. Alfau (138), Alex Vincent
(182) and Alex Washington
(285) were runners-up in their
divisions, and Chris Bartek
(113), Andrew Holcomb (120),
Nathen Pristavec (132), Niko
Kolgaklis (152) and Dustin Bal
lard (160) third in theirs. Devlin
Ryan was fourth at 106 and
Alec Davis sixth at 220 for the
Wildcats.
Next up is a clean slate at the
state traditional beginning
Thursday in Macon. “We start
all over next weekend,” said
CCHS head coach Jess Wilder.
Walthour needed about five-
and-a-half minutes total to pin
Parkview’s Allen Boatright
(2:29), Chattahoochee’s Najee
Banks (1:33) and Archer’s Elliot
Lee (1:28) and reach the final,
which he won by forfeit over
Grant Spencer of Johns Creek.
Aflau reached the final with a
3:54 fall of Austin Rothen-
berger of West Forsyth, then
won 11-2 and 15-2 major deci
sions over Luella’s Chase Kour-
jian and Rockdale’s Clif Casura.
Daniel Bullard of Archer won
the final, 10-4. A 1:53 pin of
Parkview’s Alex Pham and 4-3
and 12-6 verdicts over Alcovy’s
Kamari Williams and Archer’s
Robby Kwateng put Vincent in
the title bout, which he lost 8-7
to Lowndes’ Brandon Bell.
Washington also advanced to
the final with a pin and two de
cisions, first stopping Chatta
hoochee’s Taylor Podhouser in
2:15 and then defeating Rock
dale’s Mike Mason (6-1) and
South Forsyth’s Michael Scullin
(4-2). Archer’s M.J. Couzan was
a 2-0 winner for the title.
All four of Bartek’s wins were
by pin, including a 4:48 tri
umph over Lambert’s Andrew
Morin and a 2:46 victory over
North Forsyth’s Jake Nash in
the third-place bout. The
Wildcat opened with falls of
West Forsyth’s Jacob Miller
(2:58) and Rockdale’s Stephen
Hart (3:40) before a loss to
Archer’s DaQuan Olbert in the
championship-bracket semifi
nals.
Holcomb won four of five
matches, his victories — all by
decision — sandwiched around
a semifinal defeat to eventual
champion Sam Bullard of
Archer. He beat Preston Ernst
of North Forsyth and Ben
Sewell of Grayson in overtime
by identical 6-4 scores, and
once in the consolations, took
down Dacula’s Marcus Nelson,
3-1 and Johns Creek’s Austin
Fornell, 4-3 for third.
Three decisions were among
four wins for Pristavec, who
won by technical fall over
Luella’s James Sweatman and
edged Brookwood’s Wyatt Joz-
wowski, 5-3 in the quarters be
fore a 4-3 defeat to Rockdale’s
Ulises Ponce. A 10-6 win over
Lowndes’ Davis Ison and a 4-2
victory over Jozwowski notched
third for the ’Cat.
Kolagklis took an 11-1 major
decision from North Forsyth’s
Chad Warner but fell to the
consolations after a 5-3 defeat
See STATE, page 2B
CCHS pair gets Tide
offer; all-state team
has ’Cat presence
Andy Diffenderfer
sports@tribune-georgian.com
The list of potential suitors
for two Wildcats is growing,
and now includes the defend
ing national champions.
Last Wednesday, on the
same morning a host of Wild
cats were making their college
football decisions official on
National Signing Day, Cam
den County juniors Kalvarez
Bessent and Chris Williams
were receiving offers from Al
abama.
Playing college football has
always been a goal for the
running back-defensive back
Williams, who, like Bessent,
also has offers from Ole Miss
and Ohio State.
“I never thought Alabama
would be interested in me,”
said Williams, who last season
rushed for 443 yards, caught
another 167 yards’ worth of
passes and scored seven
touchdowns for the Class
AAAAAA quarterfinalist
’Cats. “I never thought those
three schools would be the
first to offer.”
The Crimson Tide offer
also surprised Bessent, a run
ning back and defensive back
who scored nine touchdowns,
rushed for 481 yards, made
244 yards of receptions and
snagged six interceptions last
season. His offers include one
from North Carolina, and,
like Williams, he is anticipat
ing more.
“It’s going to be somewhere
I’m comfortable,” Bessent
said. “I’m just going to wait it
out” and whatever college fit
is best, “that’s where I’ll go.”
The postseason honors con
tinue to flow in for Camden
County football, as Wildcat
products Jarrad Davis, J.J.
Green and Brice Ramsey have
been named all-state by the
Georgia Athletic Coaches As
sociation.
Davis, a linebacker who
signed with Florida last week,
was named one of the associa
tion’s Defensive Players of the
Year for Class AAAAAA, while
Green and Ramsey — both al
ready at the University of
Georgia — were named all-
state at defensive back and
quarterback.
Camden
girls fall to
Lowndes,
Coffee
Andy Diffenderfer
sports@tribune-georgian.com
After two weekend losses to
close the regular season, the Cam
den County girls were staring at a
scheduled first-round region tour
nament game Monday night.
One of the defeats was Saturday
to Coffee, whom Camden was
slated to meet in the tourney
opener at Valdosta High. The
other came Friday at home to
Lowndes, as the Lady Wildcats,
on Senior Night, started sluggish
and stumbled 53-37 despite
outscoring the visitors in the sec
ond and third quarters.
“We came out flat tonight and
we’ve come out several times like
that on our home court,” said
CCHS head coach Keith Ellis,
whose team had 12 regular-season
victories but just one in region ac
tion, and needed two tourney tri
umphs to make state.
Camden, which managed just 11
Raven Burden drained four three-pointers and scored 12 points in Cam
den’s game Saturday with Coffee. See HOOPS, page 2B
Andy Diffenderfer | Tribune & Georgian
Wildcat fans can order personalized bricks
Camden County High fans wanting
to make a permanent imprint at Chris
Gilman Stadium can do so by order
ing personalized Wildcat bricks to be
placed at the stadium entrance.
The cost of the brick is $35 or $45
with a paw print. All proceeds go to
the Camden Wildcat Quarterback
Club. Those with questions can call
Wes Williams at (912) 576-5086.
Sports news, photographs can
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