A Night to Remember! Four Champions Crowned; All-Tournament Teams Announced; Yackey State Wrestling Update

The Western Highlands Conference tournament has just concluded with the crowning of the #2 seeded Mountain Heritage Cougars as the men's tournament champions, upsetting #1 seed Madison by a 55-53 final score before a raucous and packed house at Viking Gym.

The final three games of the night were each decided by three points or less, with only the Avery Lady Vikings JVs 55-33 thrashing of Madison serving as the only one-sided affair of the night. Congratulations to the JV Lady Vikings on their fifth consecutive conference tournament title, as well as to the evening's other champions.

Immediately following the tournament, the coaches selections for the All-Tournament Teams were announced. They are as follows:

Women's WHC All-Tourney Team:

Kaitlin Franks (Polk County)
Brooks Walz (Hendersonville)
Kourtney Burchfield (Owen)
Tori Whittaker (Madison)
Jerica Ledford (Mountain Heritage)
Katie Ellis and Samantha Shook (Avery)
Samantha Smith, Whitney Jones (Mitchell)
Tournament MVP: Laken Norris (Mitchell)

Men's WHC All-Tourney Team:
Kamron Kerr (Polk County)
Keyvon Young (Hendersonville)
J.D. Chaplain (Owen)
Dustin Clarke (Avery)
Corey Greene (Mitchell)
Ramsey Elsayed and Anthony Swann (Madison)
Will McCurry, John Cannon (Mountain Heritage)
Tournament MVP: Steven Wilson (Mountain Heritage)

We'll have a full tournament recap later in the weekend. Special thanks to men's basketball coaches Bo Manis and Reggie Oakes & athletic directors Matthew Bentley and Jay Smith for all their assistance with information and accommodations throughout the tournament, as well as all the Avery High staff and employees for doing a terrific job hosting this season's tournament!

Also, Brock Yackey of the Avery wrestling team wrestled two times on Friday during the NCHSAA state wrestling tournament in Winston-Salem.

He lost 5-2 in his first match of the evening, but bounced back to defeat his opponent from Aydon-Grifton High School by a 5-3 score in overtime. Yackey earned a takedown with 20 seconds remaining in the overtime session to take the win and advance in consolation bracket. Yackey will next wrestle on Saturday morning around 8:30 a.m. We'll have further updates on his progress in the tournament as it becomes available.