Gators win the Wildcat Invitational

  
The Ware Co. Gator wrestling team placed 1^st out of 12 teams competing on Friday and Saturday at the Wildcat Invitational hosted by Valdosta HS.  The teams competing were Ware (1^st place – 233), Lowndes (2^nd place – 191), Pasco FL (3^rd place – 174.5), Ola HS (4^th place – 167.5), Irwin Co. (5^th place – 115.5), Tift Co. (6^th place – 108), Valdosta HS (7^th place – 101), Coffee Co. (8^th place – 88), Lowndes 2^nd team (9^th place – 82), Berrien Co. (10^th place – 78), Colquitt Co, (11^th place – 62), Valdosta HS 2^nd team (12^th place – 28).  The Gators came away with 5 individual first placers, 3 individual second placers, 1 individual fourth place, and 3 individual 5^th placers.  Other notable items include John Williams (12^th grade), who is still undefeated at 41 – 0, earned most outstanding lightweight wrestler (classes 106 – 145) of the tournament.  David Shavers (12^th grade; 39 – 1) had an excellent tournament as well pinning a FL state qualifier in the third round, and won by  TF (15 – 0) against Brandon Bell from Lowndes HS, who is the AAAAA state runner up from last year, in the second period of the finals.  Jacob Allen (11^th grade; 35 – 5) earned his second individual title defeating the state 5^th placer from Ola in the finals 10 – 8. The Gators also entered 9 JV wrestlers in the JV tournament and came away with 3 individual 1^st place finishes, 1 individual second place finish, and 1 individual third place finish.