2016 William Venable DCSD Wrestling Champions — Dunwoody Wildcats

Defending DeKalb County wrestling champion Dunwoody is playing host to the 56th annual William Venable DCSD Wrestling Championships on Friday (today) and Saturday.

The opening rounds begin at 5:00 pm today and resume at 9:00 am on Saturday with the finals scheduled to begin at 3:00 pm.

The Wildcats defeated McNair 252-202.5 a year ago to win the program’s first DCSD Wrestling title under the direction of Coach Luke McSorley. It was the eighth highest margin of victory in DCSD Championship history.

Dunwoody returns the most wrestlers to the event with 7 led by Constantine Gavalas who won the 170 weight class in 2016.

Lakeside should challenge the Wildcats with 6 returnees from a year ago including 195 champ Kamal Feracho and 285 champ Gordon Lewis. The Vikings finished third in the Class 7A Area Duals, just missing out on a trip to the State Duals.

Tyreese Perdue leads a contingent of five returnees for McNair, having won the 138 weight class a year ago. McNair won its Area Duals title this month and was 1-2 in the state tournament.

Southwest DeKalb which won its Area Duals to advance to the State Duals was the third place finisher in the DCSD Championships in 2016. The Panthers return five Top 6 finishers from 2016 and added the currently undefeated Eric Walker (285) to the mix.

Other teams to look out for include Arabia Mountain (second to Southwest DeKalb at Area), Stephenson (3rd in 6A Area), resurgent Cross Keys (3rd in 5A Area behind Arabia and SW DeKalb).