Paris Crowder, Keyvon Gresham and Tanner Mckie won their weight classes at the Aaron Kirkland Invitational at the Buford Arena last weekend.
Crowder (144 pounds), Gresham (138) and Mckie (215) were three of only eight Oglethorpe County wrestlers who competed in the 21-team tournament. Coach Steve Mason said several wrestlers were out with illness and injuries.
Luke Holbrooks, Christian Harris and Andrew Goller came away with several individual victories.
“This is a very good tournament with top teams from all classifications,” Mason said. “It’s kind of cool when you get to see and compete against nationally ranked wrestlers and get to see kids like Ariah Mills (Buford), who is No. 1 in the country and a world champion.”
Mason said Crowder is “getting back into wrestling form” after football season, Gresham had one of his best tournaments and Mckie competed well.
“I keep praying that we can all get healthy at the right time and get over some sickness, because we are really improving,” Mason said. “This group is going to be very tough come February. We may have a lot of inexperience, but they make up for it with effort and being coachable. I love this team, I love these wrestlers and I am excited about the next two months.”
For the JV team, Ethan Bray (132 pounds) and Logan Bruce (144) were second, and Julian George (106) was fourth.
Football players in FCA all-star game
Clint Graham, Tanner Mckie, O’Maury Huggs and Braxton Edmondson will play in the Athens Area FCA All-Star football game at noon Saturday, Dec. 20 at Clarke Central.
The game features seniors from throughout Northeast Georgia, including schools in Barrow, Oconee, Walton, Jasper, Putnam, Madison, Hart, Franklin and Elbert counties.
All OCHS players were first-team All-Region 8-A Division I selections this year.
Darius Heard, Justin Jackson, Reid Coley and Jordan Johnson were selected for last year’s game.
OCMS results
The Oglethorpe County Middle School girls team defeated Bethlehem Christian 29-27 on Dec. 4 and the OCMS boys beat Athens Christian School 39-33 on Dec. 8.
In other games, the OCMS girls lost 29-14 to ACS, 44-14 to Athens Academy and 45-11 to Prince Avenue.
The OCMS boys lost 39-34 to Bethlehem Christian, 48-10 to Athens Academy and 27-11 to Prince Avenue.