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PAGE 2B - THE COMMERCE (GA) NEWS, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2007 Scenes From Recent CHS Wrestling Action Thomas Sears punishes an opponent on the mat during recent Tiger wrestling action. Commerce is off to a 9-0 start this year. — Tiger Wrestlers Face Stout Competition This Week Continued from Page 1B One of those squads is Jefferson, perennial state champion and top ranked Class A team — one of the premiere teams in the state. A week later, the Tigers will travel to the Dragons’ lair itself for the Keen Classic. “I’m pleased with what we’ve done,” said Love of his squad’s progress to date. “This weekend we’ll see a little tougher competi tion. If we come out in the top three or four, I’ll be pleased.” As for Jefferson, Love says the Dragons are the standard by which all wrestling programs are mea sured. “It’s always good to wrestle peo ple with a tradition like that to see where you stand and to give you a reference point to show where you want to be,” he says. “You’ve got to wrestle good people to get better.” That’s what Love has been look ing for — improvement — and he says it’s there. “Our guys have improved tremen dously in the last year and a half,” he said. “Casey Drinkard (125 pounds) has improved tremendously. Dustin McClain (140) and Phillip Edwards (145) have just come a long way in the last year or so. Baxter Barnes, our heavyweight, is improving Sub-Varsity Reports match by match. It’s not showing much in wins and losses, but he’s improving every match. He’ll be okay for us in the end. “To be honest, all of our guys are wrestling well right now. We’ve just got to keep getting better. We’re wrestling with a lot of confidence right now.” Thursday Matches Last Thursday, the Tigers hosted Banks County and Athens Chris tian, beating the former 50-24 and the latter 57-20. Winners against Banks County included Addison Davis at 103, Dil- lion Desean at 112, Doug Maloch at 119, Drinkard at 125, Jon Cash at 135, McClain at 140, Edwards at 145, Sears at 152, Tyler Austin at 171 and Andrew Minish at 215. Winners against Athens Christian included Davis, Desean, Maloch, Drinkard, Nick Arostegui, Cash, McClain, Edwards, Sears and Tyler Austin. Madison Co. Duals The 10-team tournament was bro ken into two five-team pools, and Commerce swept through its pool, beating Athens Christian, 60-18; Hart County, 60-22; Central Gwin nett 64-24; and Stephens County, 59-18. Then, the Tigers took on Clarke Central, winner of the other pool, and beat them 57-24 for the title. Clarke Central finished second and Madison County third. “The good thing about this week end, with a duals tournament you take all of your guys,” said Love. “Every kid got to wrestle. Twenty- three guys got matches, so a lot of junior varsity guys got varsity action and won matches for us. It was re ally a team effort.” In spite of the Tigers’ season re cord, Love continuously points out that there’s more work to be done. “We’ve got things we need to work on and can get better at. We’ll focus on our weaknesses,” he says. The Tigers are ranked fifth in Class A, but aside from Jefferson, which remains ranked first, the other teams are on the western side of the state, Love says, so the Tigers won’t see them until the state tour nament. “We’re working hard right now, and it’s showing,” he says. “We’re starting to see the results of a couple of years of working hard, but we’ve got a long way to go, and I think we know that.” Bowen Returns The Tigers will get Chase Bowen back this week following his recov ery from a shoulder injured in foot ball. He’ll compete at 189, which Commerce has had to forfeit. Doug Maloch grapples with an opponent during a recent Tiger win. Commerce has won its past two tournaments. Casey Drinkard goes to work against a Banks County wrestler in the 125-lb. weight class. CLASSIFIED ADS 26,500 READERS $10 PER WEEK 706-335-2927 • 706-367-5233 MasterCard • VISA Save $3 by placing ads online at classified@mainstreetnews.com CMS Wrestlers Beat ACS, Edged By Banks County Thursday The Commerce Middle School wrestling team beat Athens Chris tian and fell in a close match to Banks County in a rare home match last Thursday. “We got off to a huge lead against Banks County, but then struggled in the second half,” explained Coach Darryl Ellrott. “The match was very close, and we did end up beating Athens Christian.” Five Tiger wrestlers also placed in the Junior Panther Invitational Saturday. “Weight class entries were lim ited,” said Ellrott. “We could not bring our whole team, and several of our top wrestlers were out. We were not in the running for the top three in the 13-team field, but we did bring home medals in five weight classes.” Trea Ward placed second at 138, and Chance McClure was second at 147. Kristopher Hart won fourth in the 100-pound bracket, Taylor Willoughby won fourth at 130 and Mike Eason was fourth at 170. The Tigers were due to travel to Lexington yesterday to take on Oglethorpe County Middle School and Apalachee Middle School. Re sults were not available by press time. Prior to last week, the CMS squad beat Clarke Middle, Clarke United and Burney Harris Dec. 4, winning 41 of 45 matches in a deci sive victory. On Dec. 8, the Tigers attended the Bobcat Duals at Gilmer Coun ty High School. “This was a dual format with weight classes and score kept var sity style,” said Ellrott. “We defeat ed Winder Middle School, then dropped close matches to Gilmer Middle and Lumpkin County de spite forfeiting five weight classes and wrestling everybody up. We lost decisively to Jefferson Middle, but won two more matches against their top wrestlers than we did last year. I was pleased with our com petitive attitude.”