DeKalb County School District

Alex LaRotta (182) led Lakeside's second place finish by winning the 182 weight class gold over Jamaal Jones of Miller Grove to be the only Viking to take a gold medal. Three other Vikings picked up bronze medals as Lakeside qualified 10 total for the sectional

Stephenson had a pair of gold medal performers in Darian Perry (170) and Stephen Wylie (152). Perry pulled another double this year with gold at the DeKalb Co. Championships and at Area. He won the 160 division at both a year ago. Stephenson also had three silver medalists to aid its third place finish overall. Stephenson had seven wrestlers place in the top four to move on to the sectionals.

Miller Grove's fourth place finish was on the backs of wins by Wesley Williams (195) and Thaddeus Nelson (285) as they won their respective weight classes. Miller Grove qualified six wrestlers for sectionals.

Tucker got a gold medal performance from Diego Bautista at 132 as four Tigers qualified for sectionals.

Alema Favors led four Arabia Mountain sectional qualifiers by winning the gold in the 126 pound division. He also won the 126 class at county and it is his second consecutive area gold medal after wining the 113 division in 2012 before taking fourth place in the Class AAA state meet a year ago.

Dunwoody's Sunny Sharma was second in county and first in area a year ago in the 106 weight class and upped his performance by winning both county and area titles in the 113 weight class. Dunwoody qualified four for sectionals.

Clarkston put four into the sectionals and Martin Luther King Jr. place two in sectionals led by Brian Wilson who took gold at 220.

DeKalb County participants will compete in the West Sectional at Allatoona on Friday and Saturday (Feb. 8-9).

Area 2-AAAAA

Druid Hills finished seventh in the Area 2-AAAAAA Tournament at Rockdale County and qualified five for the East Sectional at Chattahoochee this coming weekend.

Freshman Noah Floyd was the highest finishers for the Red Devils as he took a silver medal in the 120 weight class.

Area 6-AAAA

The Lithonia Bulldogs finished second to host Marist by a score of 225.5 to 155 while qualifying 13 wrestlers for the West Sectional at Pickens on Friday and Saturday.

The Bulldogs picked up gold medals from Kirkglen Hudson (106), Shamel Findley (113) and Davion Findley (182). Hudson also took gold at the DeKalb County Championships.

Chamblee took fourth while qualifying eight wrestlers for the sectional led by silver medalists Yalwaiker Eshete (113) and Tyron Carter (132).

Stone Mountain had the only other DeKalb gold medalist in Damion Schofield at 170. The Pirates had four sectional qualifiers along with Redan and Columbia put one through to sectionals.

Area 3-AAA

The McNair Mustangs came up just short of second in Area 3-AAA falling just 4.5 points behind Dawson County and qualifying 11 wrestlers for the West Sectional at Ringgold on Friday and Saturday.

Host Woodward Academy took first with 284 points followed by Dawson County with 200 and McNair with 195.5.

Senior Khalil Williams was the only gold medal winner for the Mustangs as he won his second consecutive area title in the 120 weight class to go with two consecutive DeKalb County 120 titles. Williams finished fourth overall at state in 2012.

McNair picked up four silver medals to aid their third place team finish.

Towers qualified a pair of wrestlers for sectionals led by sophomore Derival Stevens who took the 182 class title.

Southwest DeKalb came up just short of
winning the DeKalb County Wrestling Championships
title as Marist pulled out a close
victory

Stephenson's Darian Perry won the 170 pound division and then tacked on the William S. Venable MVP Award in leading the Jaguars to a fifth place finish overall with 122 points. Perry won a 15-0 technical fall decision over Damian Schofield of Stone Mountain to take the 170 class.

Deunte Mosley led Stone Mountain to an eighth place finish with 82 points by winning the 160 division gold and Alema Favors helped Arabia Mountain finish in the Top 10 by taking the 126 class title. Mosley knocked off Marist's Nick McGrath 8-5 for the 160 title while Favors took a 13-2 major decision over Southwest DeKalb's Devin Childs.

Dunwoody's Sunny Sharma rounded out the gold medal winners as he took the 113 division title. Sharma took a 12-1 major decision over Lithonia's Shamel Findley for the 113 title.

Dequan Warner, the 2007 class AAAA 112 state champion, won the 2006 class AAAA 103 lb. class state title as a freshman with a 32-0 record.

Dequan Warner (blue), the 2007
class AAAA 112 state champion

Columbia leads the current 18-school contingent in state titles with five (1972 to 1973, 1976 to 1977, 1988). The now defunct Briarcliff and Walker High Schools hold six and five of the state titles, respectively. Chamblee (1974, 1979) and Redan (1983 to 1984) are the only other schools with more than one title.

Lakeside won the last team title in 1997. Towers (1975), Avondale (1983), Cross Keys (1961), Stone Mountain (1969) and Lithonia (1971) also captured state titles. Towers, despite only one state title to its credit, holds the county lead in Top 10 finishes in the state competition with 28. Avondale has finished in the Top 10 23 times and Columbia is third with 19. The county has 15 of the current 18 schools with at least six or more top ten finishes.

Clarkston's Terrance Gaddy (green)
pins Lafayette's Will Gilbert

The 309 individual state titles include 57 participants that won 2 or more titles. Bucky Harrelson of Briarcliff won 4 titles (1961 to 1964) to lead the county and was later tied for that distinction when Lithonia's Arty McGuire won four from 1973 to 1976. Bill Glass (Druid Hills, 1965 to 1967), Craig Cummings (Sequoyah, 1967 to 1969), John Kalvelage (Lakeside, 1969 to 1971), Kirk Hoffman (Clarkston, 1978 to 1980), Kevin Pride (Towers, 1979 to 1981), J.J. Mathis (Clarkston, 1987 to 1989), Charles Cloud (Columbia, 1987 to 1989) and Richard Robinson (Tucker, 1991 to 1993) all won three state individual titles.

Six schools hold over 20 individual state titles led by Briarcliff with 40. Towers (28), Columbia (26), Avondale (25), Walker (23) and Redan (22) round out the six schools.