Greyhounds eyeballing state duals after close runner-up region finish
It’s not a stretch to say that the Greyhounds are dealing with a dose of the bittersweet this week.
In one respect, there’s a degree of enthusiasm in the JCHS wrestling room, where the Greyhounds are returning to this weekend’s GHSA State AAAA Duals after a one-year hiatus. The rub, however, is that Jones County nearly snagged a region title on Friday, losing in the finals of the region duals to its nemesis Ola as the dual went down to the final match.
JCHS scrapped its way forward against Ola, getting in position to win as the dual went to final round, where the Mustangs picked up the match victory and five points to win overall, 35-26.
“Going into that last match, we were down four points. Nate Wilson was doing everything that he could,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “He knew that he needed a tech (fall) or pin or needed a major (decision) to tie it. He did everything that he could. We just came up a little bit short.”
Jones County advanced to the final round with wins of 46-24 and 48-26 against McDonough and Locust Grove, two victories that clinched a spot in the state duals before even taking the mat against Ola. JCHS began the Locust Grove match with a 31-0 lead.
“The strategy there was that we felt like we could make a run, so we wanted to try and build a big cushion and go on a run and send a message,” Gillhouse said. “Our guys built on that and wrestled really well all the way through.”
In all, seven Greyhounds took wins against Ola, with Hunter McCleskey, Nate McDaniel, Noah Pieterick, Arrie Martin, Hunter Hardwick, Jacob Skinner, and Barrett Rosenberger taking wins. In the end, however, Ola getting its share of wins by pinfall proved pivotal. While Jones County won just one of its matches by fall, earning six points and no more than four points in its other wins, Ola earned at least five points in all of its match wins.
“It’s definitely bittersweet,” Gillhouse said. “It’s nice to be that close, but you also know that we were that close. Ola is a really good team, and our guys have proven that we can compete with the best.”
Now, the Greyhounds get a chance to rebound in this weekend’s state duals, and depending on how things shake out, Jones County could see Ola on the opposite side of the bracket in the later rounds. “We try to take the good and bad from everything we do and learn from it, and this is no different,” Gillhouse said. “We’ve proven that we can compete with them, and there’s a chance we might see them this weekend.”
Just two years ago, the Greyhounds fought to a top-five state duals finish, and Jones County’s upperclassmen will go into this weekend with that experience. The Greyhounds will open the double-elimination duals on Friday against Cambridge. The winner of that match will go against Pace Academy or Woodland Cartersville in the next round with the loser of those two firstround matches facing off in the loser’s bracket.
“Now, the goal becomes whoever you wrestle, we want to beat,” Gillhouse said. “There are no bad teams there.”
