MCDONOUGH - Following a weekend in which things did not quite fall their way in the GHSA state wrestling duals, the Greyhounds are already eager to move ahead and respond.
Jones County was among the top 16 teams in its classification on hand for last weekend’s state tournament at Ola High School, but that stay ended sooner than JCHS would have liked. After a close loss in Friday’s dual match to Cambridge dropped the Greyhounds to the wrestle backs for Saturday morning, Jones County routed Pace Academy 72-6 before falling to a tough squad from Central Carrollton, 39-32, ending duals season for the Greyhounds.
“We didn’t really wrestle well on Friday, and it kind of put us in a bad spot,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “Then, we had to wrestle a really good Central Carrollton team to stay alive, and a couple of things did not go right there.”
But the wrestling season is anything but finished for Jones County. Now, wrestlers will compete as individuals.
JCHS wrestles Peach County at home Thursday before going to the Vidalia Sweet Onion Invitational on Friday and Saturday. Then, it’s on to next Friday, where Jones County will host the region tournament that will send top qualifiers to the next weekend’s sectionals.
“We know we’re better than what we wrestled,” Gillhouse said. “The tournament style changes, but the way we wrestle doesn’t. The goal is to prove we are better than we were at state duals.”
Even amid circumstances that did not pan out, the Greyhounds showed plenty of grit on Saturday. The big 72-6 win against Pace Academy kept JCHS alive as match wins, on the mat or by forfeit came from Hunter McCleskey, Dawson Walker, Nate McDaniel, Dewan Marlowe, Noah Pieterick, Nate Wilson, Conner Lipford, Arrie Martin, Hunter Hardwick, Jacob Skinner, Luke Thompson, and Barrett Rosenberger.
With the order of the dual match starting the Central Carollton bout at 113 pounds, JCHS led 5-0 after a win via decision by Hunter McCleskey before a handful of wins by the Lions moved them in front 22-5 before Noah Pieterick’s pin cut into the lead, putting JCHS behind 30-11 following the 144-pound match.
That meant that Jones County would need to maximize its points from that point on and that the Lions could take a more conservative approach and work more to avoid getting pinned so as to surrender fewer points since in a dual match, wins by pin earn more points.
“They were wrestling not to get pinned, and I don’t blame them,” Gillhouse said. “They knew they had to survive that part of our lineup.”
The Greyhounds did that for the most part, getting pins by Arrie Martin, Jacob Skinner, and Luke Thompson and a win on decision from Hunter Hardwick. That put Jones County ahead 32-30 going to the 285-pound match, where a win by decision against Rosenberger coupled with points in the 106-pound match were just enough to end Jones County’s day.
“We knew in those last four or five, we had to win all of them and had to get a pin in all but one. Barrett just happened to be the one there at the end,” Gillhouse said. “Barrett wrestled really well and did everything he could. When you have to get a pin, it’s a hard place to be, it changes how you wrestle.”
