Dragons Hot at Burnt Mountain Classic

The Pickens Dragons Wrestling Team hosted its annual Burnt Mountain Classic wrestling tournament on January 23rd and 24th. 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 because of a death in the Sequoyah sports family, which is very unfortunate. 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 AAA runner up Sonoraville 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 normal part of late season tournaments with Area only being one week away. Also in attendance was Creekview, who did not make state but finished third in a region that featured the state runner up and the 4th place team in 5A. White County had several wrestlers in attendance that will likely compete for state placement in AAAA. Also in attendance were Cherokee, Milton, Sprayberry, River Ridge, Fannin, and Pickens. 8 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.”- Coach Flanagan

At 113 pounds, Freshman Michael Hernandez had to wrestle Brody Ross of Creekview in round one. Ross pinned Hernandez on his way to a third place finish. Hernandez 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 fifth place. Gilmer’s Trevor Preece took 1st in the weight class with a 19-4 victory over Sonoraville’s Ian Clark. “Michael has natural ability but lacks experience. He got a lot this weekend and learned some valuable lessons.” – Coach Flanagan

No Dragons wrestled in the 120 pound weight class. In the finals, Cory Garrison of White County defeated Alex Hewgley of River Ridge, 7-0.

No Dragons were in the 126 pound 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 officials stopped twice to allow wrestlers’ tempers to settle, Perez emerged as the victor 4-1.

132 pounds also featured no Dragons. In another hotly contested 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 first place.

At 138 pounds, Pickens’ Kyle Tidwell wrestled Gilmer’s Keegan Sharpe in the first round. Sharpe would emerge as the victor, leaving Tidwell to have to wait until Saturday to wrestle again. Sharpe would eventually finish fourth. Tidwell wrestled Velazquez from River Ridge and earned a 9-4 decision before falling to eventual third place winner 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.”- Coach Flanagan

145 pounds was one of the weight classes that featured more than eight wrestlers. Pickens Sophomore Michael Casey ground out a tough 14-9 decision over Fannin’s David Davenport in his first match but lost to eventual champion Cody Bearden of White COunty in the semifinals. Casey was immediately placed in the consolation semifinals, assuring him nor worse than sixth place. On Saturday, he would wrestle the eventual third palce winner, Dylan Cladwell of Cherokee and lose before grinding out a 13-7 win over Dylan Bone of Sprayberry to claim fifth. “Michael has started to grind, which is good heading into area. He has a lot of talent and is getting valuable experience. 4 of his last 6 matches have been three period battles.” – Coach Flanagan

152 pounds 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 pounds, 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 controversial fashion to Enrique Jacinto of Gilmer in the semifinals and would have to settle for third. Jacinto would be beaten by Coda Stewart of Creekview in the finals.

170 pounds featured Matt Waddell as the number 1 seed. Waddell rolled through the competition as he claimed first place. Pickens senior Josh Massey won his first match against Luke MacKenzie of River Ridge before losing to runner-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 third place match to claim third and push Massey to fourth. “Josh has come a long way this year. He was out of wrestling last year, so he had a lot of ground to make up. I could not be happier with the effort he has shown.” -Coach Flanagan

182 pounds featured Cole Millsap for the Dragons. Millsap’s first match was against eventual runner-up Kevin Hurtiz of Sprayberry. Hurtiz won and sent Millsap to the consolation bracket. Hurtiz would go one to lose the finals to Tyrik Woods of Sprayberry. Millsap would wrestle Chris Fault in his first consolation match. Fault would win on his way to a third place finish. Millsap, however, got another chance to wrestle and ground out a win against Hunter Mullen of Fannin to claim fifth 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 third 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.” Coach Flanagan

195 pounds 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 affair 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 managed to stop Holbert’s offense for three straight periods. Holbert settled for fifth 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”- Coach Flanagan

The 220 pound division featured no Dragons and only five total wrestlers. Andrew Posten of White County rolled through the competition as he claimed first place over Drac Cameron of River Ridge.

285 pounds was one of the most well stocked division in the tournament, an unusual thing outside of area and state tournaments. Levi Seabolt of Gilmer steamrolled his way to a first place title. He defeated Brock Tupman of Creekview in the finals. Pickens Senior Elliot Gallagher was defeated by Kenny Cooper in the first round. Cooper would lose to Seabolt in the semifinals and eventually take fourth 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 heavyweight division Elliot has seen all year. All of the top four will likely be at state. That’s serious competition”- Coach Flanagan

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 third in the JV scramble that took place in conjunction with the varsity tournament. Lumpkin took first and Creekview second.

“Our JV has continued to impress this year. We didn’t even enter the full amount of 15 kids and still took third. That success combined with the success of our young kids wrestling varsity shows a great future for our program.”

– Coach Flanagan