Pickens Places Fourth

In a Traditional Area tournament, a wrestler has to place fourth or higher to be able to move onto sectionals. Pickens County will have three wrestlers advancing to sectionals in Woodward this coming up weekend. Placing nine out of fourteen wrestlers at this tournament, the Dragons finished fourth at the7-AAA Traditional Area Tournament held at Allatoona High School in Acworth. The Dragons also placed fourth at the 7-AAA Duals Area Tournament hosted by Gilmer in December, beating several of the top seeded teams. The first round started at the 103 pound weight class. Tim Crenshaw wrestled his 103-pound opponent, Dylan Carlile, from Dalton High School. Crenshaw was beat by his opponent with a 10-2 Major Decision (more than eight match points). Dylan Nelson (112), Lance Chapman (119), JT Weyman (125), Robert Wofford (130), Austin Stone (135), John Riddle (145), Geoff Haughwout (152), Devin Martin (160), Aaron Lohman (215), and Trey Hampton (285) were all able to pull through the first round with wins or byes.

Nathan Weaver of the 140-pound weight class took on Allatoona’s Will Hope in his first round, getting pinned in the second period. Blas Chavez lost to his 171-pound opponent by just one point in his first round, and Chase McCowan lost his match against Dalton’s 189-pound wrestler. They dropped down to the consolation brackets following their losses.

In the second round, Nelson took on Gilmer’s Justin Karr, who pinned Nelson in the second period. Madison Martin of Heritage beat Chapman by twelve points, as Gilmer’s Johnie Flakes took a two-point lead over Weyman. Wofford was pinned by his Heritage opponent, as Preston McCalmon of Lafayette took a twelve-point lead over Stone. Riddle was pinned by Cedartown’s 145-pound Leo Cordero in his second match. Haughwought wrestled Allatoona’s McGuire and won by a 3-0 decision. Jake Johnson of Cartersville pinned Martin, as Lohman was able to pin his opponent from Lafayette. Trey Hampton wrestled LeQuire from Murray County whom he pinned in the second period.

The tournament then entered the consolation rounds, as Nelson, Weyman, Wofford, Stone, Riddle, Haughwout, McCowan, Lohman, and Hampton moved on to wrestle for sixth place or higher.

Unfortunately, Pickens was not able to move any of their wrestlers to the finals round. In the semi-finals, Haughwout wrestled Josh Perigo of Gilmer, as Perigo left the mat with a four-point lead. Haughwout then went on to place sixth in the tournament. Aaron Lohman went on to wrestle this year’s 7-AAA Traditional tournament champion in the semi-finals, getting pinned in the second round. He went on to wrestle for third and fourth, and came out of the tournament with a third place medal.

Hampton wrestled Austin Sprayberry of Gilmer in the consolation semis round, getting disqualified for an illegal slam. He went on to place fifth in the tournament. Nelson placed fifth in his weight class this weekend, beating his opponent from Cartersville. Cartersville’s Ty Downer came out on top over Weyman, who placed sixth. Wofford wrestled his opponent from Murray County quite well, but it was not enough for him to receive fifth place. Austin Stone beat Allatoona’s Fitzpatrick by two points as he won a fifth place medal in the consolation round. Geoff Haughwout wrestled McGuire once again as he wrestled for fifth or sixth, and came out on top once again. Because Hampton was disqualified in his previous match, he was forced to go on to wrestle for fifth and sixth, and he beat his Dalton opponent, earning his fifth place medal.

John Riddle placed fourth under Cedartown’s Cordero and will be moving on to sectionals next weekend, along with McCowan, who lost his match against Heritage’s Tripp in the consolation finals. Aaron Lohman will be joining these two in sectionals next week, as he earned his third place medal over his opponent.