The Social Circle High School varsity wrestling team placed sixth at the Takedown Sportswear Invitational at Archer High School last weekend. Archer, the back-to-back State champions in 6-AAAAAA hosted the 39 school event which show cased top teams from Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina.

SCHS head Coach Randy Prater said, “This is by far the toughest tournament in the state. It was what we needed because it let us know what we need to work on. We did well with a top-six finish out of 39 teams, but I thought we should have wrestled better and could have been in the top four.”

What Prater didn’t say is that he only took 10 grapplers to the tournament (instead of a full line up of 14). He also didn’t mention the quality of the teams competing. The results for the top 10 teams were (1) Archer, (2) Thompson, (3) Baylor, (4) Gilmer, (5) Commerce, (6) Social Circle, (7) Union Grove, (8) Creekview, (9) Lumpkin County and (10) Collins Hill.

The teams that finished ahead of SCHS have very impressive pedigrees. Archer is the GHSA 2013 and 2014 6-AAAAAA state champion. Thompson is the 2014 Alabama State Champion. Baylor placed fourth in the state of Tennessee last year. Gilmer won GHSA 5A State titles in 2013 and 2014. Commerce was the 2014 GHSA 1A State Champion.

Representing the Redskins were freshman Kyle Morris (106), junior Levi Leach (120), sophomore Stevie Howard (126), junior James Corasanitti (132), junior Reid Harris (138), freshman Micah Thompson (145), sophomore Cade Lackey (152), sophomore Khamari Whimper (160), senior Aaron Forrester (182) and junior David Engstrom (195). Cade Lackey was tournament Champion for the 152-pound weight class with David Engstrom placing second in the 195 pound weight class led the Redskin Grapplers to their sixth place finish at the event.