GREYHOUND GRAPPLERS
Sometimes, the key to a deep run through a postseason bracket is how kind, or cruel, bracket placement is to a team. The Greyhounds ended up on the foul side of that for Saturday’s state dual prelims, where after breezing past Jackson of Atlanta 78-6, the Greyhounds came up short to Jefferson 47-30. The Dragons, who moved up to AAAAA this year, won the AAAA duals title last year and are among the state’s top teams annually.
“Jefferson is one of the most storied programs in the state; they’re a very good team. Our message to them going in was to wrestle better than (the week before) against Ola,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “Our kids wrestled hard and walked out on the mat to win. I think we wrestled them hard and well. That’s the type of program we want to build towards.”
Even still, the Greyhounds were not rattled by the prestige of the Dragons program, having the lead through the dual match’s first nine rounds before Jefferson won in the end. Top showings included Hunter McCleskey at 106 pounds and Arrie Martin and Carson Lumley who moved up a weight class at 144 and 150, with Martin coming away with an overtime win Chi Anderson moved up a weight class as well, registering a pair of pins.
“They’re upset, but they understand that on Saturday they wrestled as well as they could,” Gillhouse said. “I think coming off the mat, we felt good about how we wrestled.”
Jones County was far from the only team statewide in AAAAA falling victim to how the brackets shook out. While five top seeds won their prelims to advance to state, Ware County, one of the stronger teams in the state, finished second in its region and drew Cass, which won its prelim. Locust Grove, which finished third behind Jones County in the region duals, advanced to state as its prelim top seed was Lithonia.
“We’re wrestling in a broken system right now,” Gillhouse said. “We have Locust Grove, who we beat in duals (going to state). Flowery Branch beat Eastside, but then had to go wrestle Ola. You look at Ware, they’re probably one of the top teams in the state, and they drew Cass.”
With duals season wrapped up for the Greyhounds, the focus turns to the pursuit of individual tournaments. In that light, Jones County will take its wrestlers to Smith’s Station, Ala., this weekend to get more mat time in preparation for the region tradition tournament on Feb. 4 hosted by Jones County followed by sectionals and the state tournament the following two weekends. JCHS also hosts Perry Jan. 26.
