It was a good week for the Mat Panthers of Jackson County, as they picked up a dual meet victory as well as their first tournament place of the year at the Panther Invitational.
Last Tuesday, Jackson County split matches between Flowery Branch and Banks County.
The team started off the night by picking up a victory over Banks County and finished off the night by losing the match on tiebreaker criteria to Flowery Branch.
Wrestlers going 2-0 on Tuesday night were Zach Moore, Ryan Shekey, Tre’ Horton, Izzy Carrillo-Garcia, Charles Smothers and Ryan Howe.
Coach Jason Powers said he is very pleased with the team’s progress so far this season.
“We are very early in the season and we are showing a lot of improvement throughout our entire line-up,” he said. “We wrestled a pretty tough match against Banks County and were able to come out victorious. We still gave up too many pins to be considered a great dual team, but it is something we are working on. Against Flowery Branch, we suffered a couple of surprising losses and we were not able to come up with the pins we needed to win the match. Flowery Branch fought extremely hard off their backs and we didn’t. We ended up in a tie and ended up losing on tie breaker criteria.”
Powers said he felt this match showed the team how important every point is throughout the entire match.
“Many times it is difficult to see how important it is to pick up a few extra points in your match to secure a major decision rather than a normal decision. I hope this match teaches us this and we are able to grow and improve as a dual team because of it.”
The Panthers then hosted the Panther Invitational on Friday and Saturday night. The team wrestled very well throughout the tournament and was able to finish the tournament tied for third with White County.
The Mat Panthers had six medalists in the tournament.
Izzy Carrillo-Garcia was the lone tournament champion for Jackson County in the 140 lb. category. Zach Moore placed third in the 103 lb. category. Ryan Shekey placed third in the 125 lb. class. Jamari Davis placed third in the 171 lb. category. Charles Smothers placed third in the 189 lb. class. Austin McDonald placed second in the 215 category.
Following the seed meeting Wednesday night, Powers said he knew that the Panther Invitational would again be an extremely tough tournament this year.
“I think we came out of the seed meeting with only two top four seeds,” he said. “However, our wrestlers out-wrestled their seeds and six of them were able to find the podium. This is extremely important in any tournament you enter. I always emphasize the importance of bettering your seed by at least one place. This is always key in the success of a team at an individual tournament.”
The Panthers were able to place seven wrestlers in the semi-finals, with all but one of them finding their way to the podium.
“Of course I would have liked this number to be seven out of seven, but six out of seven is not bad in this tournament,” Powers said.
For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald or The Braselton News.
