WRESTLING: Dragons to host sectionals after dominating area tourney

Jefferson wrestlers will face some tough brackets at the state sectionals, but they’ll at least do so in familiar surroundings.
The Dragons are set to host the Class AAAA B sectional this Friday and Saturday at The Arena, keeping the team off the road and out of hotels.
“It is kind of nice that they get to sleep in their own beds,” coach Doug Thurmond said.
Jefferson qualified all 14 of its wrestlers out of this past Saturday’s area tournament to the state sectionals, 11 of which were area champions. The Dragons won the 8-AAAA title Saturday at St. Pius X with 279 points, finishing 139 points ahead of second-place North Oconee.
“We were really pleased,” Thurmond said. “We had some guys who had some really tough matches and did really well. You’d love to come through with 14 number ones, but you also have to be realistic. Some of those guys had some real tough weight classes.”
Winning area titles were Tyson Thurmond (106), Jared Blackburn (120), Ian Statia (126), Dawson Bates (132), Cole Potts (138), Coy Strong (145), Nolan Sorrow (152), Ryan Hurd (160), Mason Corbett (170), Hunter Allen (195) and Gavin London (285).
Other state sectional qualifiers were Mason Mingus (113) and James Phaturos (182), who both finished second, and Alex Parker (220), who placed fourth.
For the rest of this story, see the Jan. 31 edition of The Jackson Herald.