SWD knocks off three-time champ to win wrestling championship

Southwest DeKalb High School captured its third DeKalb County Wrestling Championship by dethroning three-time defending champion Dunwoody High School on Jan. 28 at Dunwoody.

The Southwest DeKalb Panthers won four gold medals and had 10 wrestlers place sixth or higher to score 235.5 points to Dunwoody’s 226. St. Pius finished third with 202.0 points followed by Marist (189.0) and Stone Mountain (125.0). This makes three county titles for Southwest DeKalb wrestling coach Keith Johnson’s Panthers who also won in 2007 and 2011.

All four Panthers who brought home gold medals also claimed gold a year ago. Jayden Hammons won the 132-weight class in 2022 and moved up to 138 to take gold again. Hammonds pulled out a pin of Miller Grove’s Tyrone Williams in the title match to capture the gold.

Southwest DeKalb’s Dharrin Smith repeated as a gold medalist with his decisive 14-4 victory over St. Pius’ Connor Sharp in the championship match. Smith had drawn an opening round bye and won by a pin in the quarterfinals against Chamblee’s Chance Stallings and by technical fall over Anas Aziz of Clarkston, who claimed a bronze medal in the consolation finals.

Jerrell Baskins became the third Panther to score back-to-back gold medals in the championship with a pin of Arabia Mountain’s Langston Blakely in the final match of the 175 class. Baskins had won gold at 195 a year ago and won all four of his matches by pinfall in 2023.

Isaiah Scott also became a two-time gold medal winner for the Panthers via a quick take down and pin of Stone Mountain’s Erick Barrios. Scott won all three of his matches after a first-round bye via the pinfall. Scott’s semifinal pin was over bronze medalist Luke Chilton of Lakeside who went on to win over Dunwoody’s Steven Crespo by pin to take third.

Second place Dunwoody picked up three gold medals and 11 other wrestlers place in the top six including two runners-up. Charlie Ruark scored his second county title in two years by winning the 120-weight class via a convincing 9-1 win over Evan Chandler of Marist.

The two other Dunwoody gold medals came in the 132 and 150 weight classes. Charlie Mixson who finished second at 120 in 2022 was trailing St. Pius’ Gene Smith 2-1 as the clock on round three ticked down to the 10 second mark. He escaped and took Smith down to score two-points for win before the buzzer sounded to get the victory.

Heading into the final 20 seconds of the 150-championship match Dunwoody’s Richard Remigalo and Southwest DeKalb’s Malik Colquitt were tied at five points each. Remigalo slipped Colquitt’s hold and picked up a quick five points to take a 10-5 victory for the gold.

Third place St. Pius had 11 wrestlers place on the day but dropped all class championship matches to finish with four silver and two bronze medals.

Fourth place Marist came away with three gold among its 10 wrestlers who placed in the tournament. Xaiver Byams swept the 190-class winner all three of his matches via pinfall including his title bout with Dunwoody’s Cohen Heinrich. Southwest DeKalb’s Zyeed Connwell pinned Stone Mountain’s Victor Folks to win the bronze medal.

Forest Briesacher picked one of the three golds for Marist with his third consecutive win in the tournament by pinfall.

Howard Heller picked up the gold in the 144 class via pin over St. Pius’ Luke Pinson for Marist’s third gold of the day. Heller won four of this tournament matches by pinfall.

Druid Hills Deonte’ Smith grabbed the gold in the 113-championship match with his second pinfall of the tournament against St. Pius’ Ben Tomasello.

Columbia’s Thawbaan As-Siddiq moved up to 126 for this year’s tournament after winning gold at 120 a year ago. As-Siddiq won the gold via injury default against Dunwoody’s Sam Scothorn when Scothorn could not continue after being injured during the match. As-Siddiq had won his first two matches by pinfall and was awarded the Tillery Award as the Best Overall Wrestler of the tournament.

Arabia Mountain’s Malik Conley became a two-time DeKalb County champion by getting a convincing 10-1 victory over Marist’s Miller Byce in the championship match of the 165 class. Conley won at 160 a year ago.

The final championship match came in the 285 class that matched Tucker’s Antez Starks and Miller Grove’s John Nyiam, both of whom had swept into the finals with three consecutive pinfalls. Starks put Nyiam down for the pinfall to capture the gold medal to complete a four-pinfall tournament.