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PAGE 2B PICKENS COUNTY PROGRESS THURSDAY. JANUARY 29. 2015
Dragons wrestling hosts
Burnt Mountain Classic
Michael Casey locks up a Union County wrestler.
The Pickens Dragons
Wrestling Team hosted its annual
Burnt Mountain Classic
wrestling tournament on January
23-24. The tournament was
slated to feature 12 varsity teams,
mostly from North Georgia. “We
had two teams drop out last
minute, which always hurts as far
as having full brackets,” stated
head coach Grady Flanagan.
“Sequoyah had to drop out be
cause of a death in the Sequoyah
sports family, which is very un
fortunate. Chapel Hill was also
slated to be there, but after last
year’s weather issues in the
metro area, they were taking no
chances.”
Despite having lost two
teams, the tournament featured
several top teams from North
Georgia and some very highly
rated individual wrestlers. State
dual champions Gilmer High
School and AAArunnerup Sono-
raville both were in attendance
and both brought most of their
top wrestlers. The only ones that
were not in attendance were held
out due to injury concerns, a nor
mal part of late season tourna
ments with area only being one
week away. Also in attendance
was Creekview, who did not
make state but finished 3rd in a
region that featured the state run-
nerup and the 4th place team in
5A. White County had several
wrestlers in attendance that will
likely compete for state place
ment in A AAA. Also in atten
dance were Cherokee, Milton,
Sprayberry, River Ridge, Fannin
and Pickens. Eight of the 10
schools in attendance had a
wrestler in the finals and only
one did not have someone in the
top 3 in at least one weight class.
At 106 lbs., Pickens’ own
state contender Koby Milner
won his first two matches Friday
night, including a win over area
rival Domingo Reynoso of
Gilmer, to advance to the finals.
He would face another rival, this
one of a more personal nature, in
Bryce Davis of Creekview. Davis
won the finals match 11-7 and
Milner was forced to settler for
second. “Koby has three losses
all year; all to state contenders.
Two of the losses are to Davis,
who should be in the state finals
in three weeks,” said Coach
Flanagan
At 113 lbs., freshman Michael
Hernandez had to wrestle Brody
Ross of Creekview in round one.
Ross pinned Hernandez on his
way to a 3rd place finish. Her
nandez received a bye in the first
round of consolations, awarding
him a chance to wrestle for a
medal, regardless of the outcome
of his next match. Hernandez
would lose that match but come
back to pin Alex LaBarre of
Sprayberry to claim 5th place.
Gilmer’s Trevor Preece took 1st
in the weight class with a 19-4
victory over Sonoraville’s Ian
Clark. “Michael has natural abil
ity but lacks experience. He got
a lot this weekend and learned
some valuable lessons, said
Coach Flanagan
No Dragon wrestled in the
120 lb. weight class. In the finals,
Cory Garrison of White County
defeated Alex Hewgley of River
Ridge, 7-0.
No Dragons were in the 126
lb. weight class either. The finals
for this weight class featured two
extremely talented wrestlers in
Gilmer’s Alberto Perez and
Sonoraville’s Kyle Chastain. In a
hotly contested match that the of
ficials stopped twice to allow
wrestlers’ tempers to settle, Perez
emerged as the victor 4-1.
132 lbs. also featured no
Dragons. In another hotly con
tested match that had all of the
fans shouting, Lucas Patterson of
Gilmer emerged as a 7-6 victor
over Creekview’s Nate Bridges
to earn 1 st place.
At 138 lbs., Pickens’ Kyle
Tidwell wrestled Gilmer’s Kee
gan Sharpe in the first round.
Sharpe would emerge as the vic
tor, leaving Tidwell to have to
wait until Saturday to wrestle
again. Sharpe would eventually
finish 4th. Tidwell wrestled Ve
lazquez from River Ridge and
earned a 9-4 decision before
falling to eventual 3rd place win
ner Ryan Camp of Creekview.
Tidwell would return for the 5th
place match and grind out an 11-
7 victory over Parker Brown of
Fannin. “Kyle has made great
strides this year. It is not easy
wrestling in that weight class as
a young wrestler. We are very
proud of him,” the coach said.
145 lbs. was one of the weight
classes that featured more than
eight wrestlers. Pickens sopho
more Michael Casey ground out
a tough 14-9 decision over Fan
nin’s David Davenport in his first
match but lost to eventual cham
pion Cody Bearden of White
County in the semifinals. Casey
was immediately placed in the
consolation semifinals, assuring
him no worse than 6th place. On
Saturday, he would wrestle the
eventual 3rd place winner, Dylan
Cladwell of Cherokee, and lose
before grinding out a 13-7 win
over Dylan Bone of Sprayberry
to claim 5th. “Michael has
started to grind, which is good
heading into area. He has a lot of
talent and is getting valuable ex
perience. Four of his last 6
matches have been three period
battles,” Coach said.
152 lbs. featured no wrestlers
from Pickens as Coach Flanagan
chose to rest Will Logan in hopes
that he would be ready for area.
In the finals, Braden Johnson of
Creekview would defeat Morgan
Holt of Sonoraville, 17-2.
At 160 lbs., Pickens wrestler
Jake Coleman lost his first
match, a three round battle with
Sonoraville’s Chris Gonzalas.
Coleman, however, failed to
make weight that night and was
eliminated from the tournament.
Gonzalas would lose in contro
versial fashion to Enrique Jacinto
of Gilmer in the semifinals and
would have to settle for 3rd. Jac
into would be beaten by Coda
Stewart of Creekview in the fi
nals.
170 lbs. featured Matt Wad
dell as the number 1 seed. Wad
dell rolled through the
competition as he claimed 1st
place. Pickens senior Josh
Massey won his first match
against Luke MacKenzie of
River Ridge before losing to run
ner-up Austin Graham of
Creekview. He turned around on
Saturday to beat Tameron King
of Sprayberry before MacKenzie
exacted a measure of revenge in
the 3rd place match to claim 3rd
and push Massey to 4th. “Josh
has come a long way this year.
He was out of wrestling last year,
so he had a lot of groimd to make
up. I could not be happier with
the effort he has shown.”
182 lbs. featured Cole Millsap
for the Dragons. Millsap’s first
match was against eventual run
ner-up Kevin Hurtiz of Spray
berry. Hurtiz won and sent
Millsap to the consolation
bracket. Hurtiz would go one to
lose the finals to Tyrik Woods of
Sprayberry. Millsap would wres
tle Chris Fault in his first conso
lation match. Fault would win on
his way to a 3rd place finish.
Millsap however, got another
chance to wrestle and ground out
a win against Hunter Mullen of
Fannin to claim 5th place. “Cole
is a grinder. He has fought hard
to keep himself in the mix and he
got a horrible draw. He wrestled
the runner-up and the 3rd place
wrestler. Had he been on the
other side of the bracket, he
would have wrestled for third.
Very happy he fought back to
claim a medal in his final BMC,”
said Coach Flanagan.
195 lbs. also featured a senior
Dragon in state hopeful John
Holbert. John would win his first
match Friday night over Adrian
Mendoza of Fannin. That set up
a semifinals match with Jake
Parker of Gilmer. Parker had
beaten Holbert the previous two
times they faced each other this
year, each time being a brutal af
fair between the two. Parker
would again win this match in
route to a 2nd place finish to
Jacob Bagwell of Sonoraville.
Holbert would be defeated in the
consolation semifinals by Josh
Crowley of Cherokee who man
aged to stop Holbert’s offense for
three straight periods. Holbert
settled for 5th place with a 46
second pin of Justin Koth of
River Ridge. “John has wrestled
Parker three times now. It’s safe
to say that they know everything
about each other, making those
matches tough. Crowley has also
seen John three times now. At
this point in the year, you have to
make adjustments and we failed
to do that as a coaching staff.
John has done everything we
have asked of him. We have to
do a better job of setting him up
for success.”
The 220 lb. division featured
no Dragons and only five total
wrestlers. Andrew Posten of
White County rolled through the
competition as he claimed 1st
place over Drac Cameron of
River Ridge.
285 lbs. was one of the most
well stocked division in the tour
nament, an unusual thing outside
of area and state tournaments.
Levi Seabolt of Gilmer steam-
rolled his way to a 1st place title.
He defeated Brock Tupman of
Creekview in the finals. Pickens
Senior Elliot Gallagher was de
feated by Kenny Cooper in the
first round. Cooper would lose to
Seabolt in the semifinals and
eventually take 4th after losing to
White County’s Ty Anderson.
Gallagher picked up a forfeit win
to advance to face Anderson in
the consolation semifinals. He
would lose that match but turn
around and defeat Tyler Watson
of Milton in the 5th place match
to earn a place on the podium.
“This is the toughest heavy
weight division Elliot has seen
all year. All of the top four will
likely be at state. That’s serious
competition,” the coach said.
Gilmer would take top team
honors, followed by Creekview
and Sonoraville. Bryce Davis
was named most outstanding
lightweight and Matt Waddell
was named most outstanding
heavyweight.
The JV Dragons took 3rd in
the JV scramble that took place
in conjunction with the varsity
tournament. Lumpkin took 1st
and Creekview 2nd.
Coach Flanagan said, “Our
JV has continued to impress this
year. We didn’t even enter the
full amount of 15 kids and still
took 3rd. That success combined
with the success of our young
kids wrestling varsity shows a
great future for our program.”
More local sports
news on page 6B
Dragons recognize senior wrestlers
“All of our seniors are young people of great character, ” says coach
W
XL -
Senior wrestlers (l to r): Elliot Gallagher, Will Logan (Captain), John Holbert (Captain),
Lizzie Murphy (Manager), Josh Massey, Cole Millsap, and Jake Coleman.
The Pickens Wrestling team
wrestled its final dual matches of
the season on Wednesday night
as they brought in Union County
and Cherokee High School for
senior night.
After Cherokee and Union
wrestled, the varsity Dragons
stepped on the mat to wrestle
with Union County. The match
began with Pickens picking up a
forfeit at 138 lbs. This was fol
lowed up by Michael Casey
wrestling a very tough match
against Adam Williams of
Union. After several back and
forth exchanges, Casey managed
to pin Williams to the mat to se
cure the six points for the Drag
ons. Senior Will Logan was hurt
earlier in the week at practice, so
the Dragons were forced to go
with a JV wrestler at 152 lbs. The
experience difference was too
great as Union picked up its first
win of the dual and cut the Pick
ens lead in half. Another loss at
160 tied the dual. A forfeit vic
tory at 170 lbs. returned Pickens
to the lead. A loss at 182 tied the
dual back.
However, buoyed by two con
secutive forfeits at 195 and 220
lbs., the Dragons began to build
a lead. Senior Elliot Gallagher
made short work of his opponent
at heavyweight. Union elected to
forfeit to Pickens at 106 lbs. At
this point, Pickens was ahead 42-
18 but the reality of the three for
feits Pickens has faced in duals
all season loomed large. Pickens
entered the 113 match needing
anything but a loss by pin to
avoid defeat. Freshman Michael
Hernandez rose to the occasion
as he pinned Brendan Mason of
Union in 40 seconds to seal the
victory. The final score was 48-
36.
The Dragons then honored six
senior wrestlers and one senior
manager. The senior wrestlers
were Jake Coleman, Cole Mill
sap, Will Logan, Josh Massey,
Elliot Gallagher and John Hol
bert. The one senior manager
was Lizzie Murphy.
“All of our seniors are young
people of great character, which
is one of our goals in this pro
gram,” said head coach Grady
Flanagan. “All six are great lead
ers with a lot of grit and determi
nation and Lizzie has saved us a
few times in matches.”
The Dragons returned to the
mat to wrestle a Cherokee team
depleted by some injuries but
still very dangerous. After
wrestling a tough match in the
first dual, Michael Casey wres
tled an even tougher one in this
dual. The match ended 11-10 in
favor of Cherokee but it was one
in which both wrestlers showed
great determination and tough
ness. Another defeat at 152 put
the Dragons down 9-0 early on.
Senior Jake Coleman stepped on
the mat at 160 lbs. determined to
get a win in his final home match
and he delivered with a thirteen
second pin. Cherokee forfeited at
170 lbs. and Coach Flanagan
elected to bump Senior Josh
Massey up to 182. Massey deliv
ered at the higher weight. One
senior victory was followed by
another as John Holbert pinned
his opponent at 195. A loss at
220 was followed by Gallagher
picking up his second win of the
night, this time in 16 seconds.
Playing a little bit of strategy,
Pickens elected to double forfeit
and bump sophomore phenom
Koby Milner to 113 and fresh
man Michael Hernandez to 120.
Both delivered victories to seal
the dual. Kyle Tidwell wrestled
the final dual match of the season
and picked up a quick pin to set
the final score at 48-27.
On the season, the Dragons
finished with a 6-6 record in
duals. The team had failed to win
a single dual in the previous two
seasons.
“We made a goal this year to
win duals, put the previous two
seasons behind us, and begin
building this program to level we
knew it would be. Tonight, we
wanted to try our very hardest to
send every senior out with a win.
We almost accomplished that on
an individual level. We did, how
ever, as a team, send our seniors
out with two dual victories on
their home mat. That was big for
us,” said Coach Flanagan
The Dragons will travel to
Area Traditional on January 31 at
Ridgeland High School.
Gregory signs baseball scholarship
Cameron Gregory, a PHS senior, recently signed a scholarship to play baseball for Talla
hassee Community College. Gregory signed at Pickens High School with friends family and
coaches in attendance.
By Joy Sohail & Lupita Gonzalez,
Dragons Lair News
There are many who have succeeded at Pickens
High School but one student has truly soared above
expectations and that is Cameron Gregory. He re
cently got accepted into Tallahassee Community
College in Florida.
Gregory was offered a baseball scholarship.
Coach McCloud visited him and signed him for the
scholarship and team last week at Pickens High.
When asked how he knew about the college
Gregory said, “I have been thinking about going
there for a while now because it feels like home;
I’m really glad I signed with them and I can’t wait
to start this new experience.”
Gregory has been playing baseball since he was
just 2 years old.
Gregory explains, “I’ve always had a passion for
baseball and its been so much fun to be able to ex
perience the games.”
Gregory knows there is much hard work ahead
at college but as he puts it, “totally worth it!”
(JYSA) Dragons .Junior Wrestling. Club
“Building champions on and off the mat”
Mid-season update
It has been a great first half of the season for the
JYSA Dragons Junior Wrestling Club. The journey
began in August and will end March 7 at the state
championship held in the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
The Dragons have had multiple tournament
champions and many tournament placers this sea
son. We have also made some noise on the national
level as well. This success is a direct result of all
of the hard work that our wrestlers and coaches
have put in this season and the support that we have
received from the JYSA Board of directors. Over
the past three years we have seen tremendous
growth in our program.
JYSA Dragons Junior Wrestling now has over
30 members and five Bronze certified coaches in
volved in the program. The Club is a member of
USA Wrestling and chartered by Team Georgia.
The wrestlers and coaches would like to thank
Jasper Mayor John Weaver and the JYSA Board for
providing us a place to call home and the proper
equipment to prepare for success. We could have
not achieved the level of success that we have
achieved this year without your support.
Go Dragons!