GREYHOUND WRESTLING
Jones County’s wrestling program took a significant step ahead last year, qualifying for the state duals, ranking them among the state’s top eight teams in the GHSA’s AAAAA classification.
The Greyhounds, who also qualified four wrestlers for the state individual tournament last year, have bigger things in mind this year, however. There’s certainly a degree of motivation given that Jones County went 0-2 in the state duals.
The goal is not just to merely match what was attained last season. It’s to exceed that.
Jones County opens the season Saturday in the John Robbins Invitational in Morgan County before a Nov. 15 meet at Lamar County. That will lead into the Greyhounds hosting the Gauntlet In Gray on Nov. 19.
“One of our big things we talk about is to raise the standard, and what that means to us is that we’re trying to go one step further,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “We were super excited to make it to state duals last year and it was our first time making it there in that format, but now the goal is to get there and win some matches. Just getting there is not good enough.”
On the upper half of the roster in terms of seniority, Jones County has its good share of wrestlers who claimed lots of match wins this year. Two are seniors – Chi Anderson and James Rackley. In fact, Rackley was among the state qualifiers last year while Anderson was on target for the same before a late-season injury ended his season early.
Jackson Brown and Aiden Lipford will also be expected to pick up points by way of match wins with a strong class of younger wrestlers including Evin Brock, who could wrestle CONTINUED FROM>> B1
at either heavyweight or the 215-pound weight class, according to Gillhouse.
Jones County gets its shot to wrestle in front of a home crowd early during the Gauntlet in Gray. That will be one of three high-school tournaments that Jones County hosts this year, with the other two having higher stakes – the region individual tournament and the state duals. Last year’s state duals were held in Henry County, so a Jones County berth in this year’s tournament would mean being able to wrestle in a highstakes event at home. “It’ll be exciting to bring people into our community and let them see what all our town has to offer,” Gillhouse said. “When I first started coaching wrestling, the state duals was 16 teams at the Macon Centreplex. Now, only seven other schools in the state get to host, so it’s exciting for us to be one of them.”
After next weekend’s home tournament, the Greyhounds wrestle Nov. 26 at the Papa Wayne Duals at Hiram, the Yellow Jacket Duals Dec. 2-3 at Jeff Davis, Putnam County Dec. 6 at home prior to the Dec. 9-10 Smackdown in the Mac Town tournament hosted by Mount de Sales.
That’ll then lead into a Dec. 13 home meet against Dublin with the final pre-Christmas event being the Great Smoky Mountain Grapple Dec. 16-17 in Asheville, N.C.
The goal in that span of matches and meets is simple for the Greyhounds.
“A lot of it is guys figuring out where they want to be. We’re not big on asking guys to cut weight to wrestle (in a set weight class),” Gillhouse said. “A lot of it is to let guys choose what they want to do. Most guys make a choice depending on what we have. The big thing this time of year is mat time, we don’t talk a whole lot about weight class, you go wrestle and all of that takes care of itself in the end.”
