GREYHOUND GRAPPLERS
The emotions are mixed for the Greyhounds coming out of last week’s region duals. A pair of wins in their home gymnasium achieved one of Jones County’s stated goals – a spot in the region finals and berth in this weekend’s state duals. Despite that, the Greyhounds have their eyes on redemption.
After top-ranked Ola handed JCHS a one-sided loss, the Greyhounds are chomping at the bit to grab the opportunity to rebound by the horns at this weekend’s AAAAA state duals in Jefferson.
Jones County will be among the state’s top 16 teams in AAAAA wrestling over a span of two days, starting Friday afternoon. The round of 16, quarterfinals and first round of wrestle backs are Friday with the field cut to 12 on Saturday morning. JCHS will need to avoid going 0-2 on Friday in order to remain alive on Saturday morning.
The Greyhounds will wrestle Tucker in the first round with the winner and loser of that match taking on Jefferson and Chattahoochee next.
“We’re excited to be going. That’s the No. 1 goal at the region duals tournament, that we get to wrestle one more week and you don’t want to end your season before it’s over, so we accomplished that,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “But with what we just did against Ola, we’ve made the road more difficult. I can’t imagine our seeding will be really high with giving up 63 points.”
The Greyhounds are back in the state duals after a one-year hiatus.
Unlike last year, only the top two teams out of region duals advanced to state.
Because of this, there was little margin for error on Saturday for Jones County.
The Greyhounds appeared to be locked in to begin the morning.
It began with an easy, as expected, win against Dutchtown, 83-0 with Aiden Lipford, Peyton Thompson, and Jackson Brown starting things off with a pin followed by a win via technical fall from Arrie Martin and pins by Robert Scott, David Little, Jack Carr, Brayden Thompson, Garrett Green and Will Agudelo. That, combined with a handful of wins by forfeit, added up to a lopsided win for Jones County.
But a berth in the semifinals was neither given nor easy for the Greyhounds.
Waiting in the semifinals was Locust Grove, a team usually among the top slice of the region.
After a pair of wins early in the match by Landon Lewis and Hunter McCleskey, the Greyhounds faced adversity for the first time, dropping a pair of matches to lead 12-9.
Jones County responded with pins by Brown and Martin, moving the JCHS lead to 24-10. Then, by way of wins by David Little and Jacob Skinner, the overall lead grew to 36-19 with four matches to go. Green and Luke McCoy rounded out the dual match with pins to wrap up the win, and more key, lock up a berth in at state duals.
“We knew we had to win that semifinals match,” Gillhouse said. “I’m happy that the structure has gone back to that; the best 16 teams in the state are in the room.”
The Greyhounds got a good start against Ola, trailing 6-3 after a win by decision by Hunter McCleskey. It would be all Ola from there, as the Mustangs won four in a row via pin to lead 36-3 and eventually 63-9, with the only other JCHS win being by Agudelo in the dual’s final match in a 63-9.
“They’re a really good wrestling team. There’s a reason why they are ranked no. 1 in the state.
I felt like we could have gotten a little bit closer,” Gillhouse said. “They have a gauntlet that’s really tough, and we kind of knew that going in. We just have to do a better job of not getting pinned against guys that should not pin us and get some wins in some other weight classes.”
