Madison County High School will take part in the 8-AAAA Duals – not to be confused with the Feb. 5-6 traditional 8-AAAA tournament — Friday and Saturday at Clarke Central High School.
Madison County had a 10-8 duals record heading into Tuesday night’s match with Stephens County (results weren’t available at press time).
“We’ve got some young guys, and we’ve got a good crop of older guys who have been through the system for a few years,” coach Richie Houston said. “Dual-wise, if we can get some of the guys going who are on the edge of turning it on, we might be OK.”
The duals pit teams against each other in head-to-head competition at each weight class, offering an indication of how strong a team is from top to bottom.
Houston isn’t exactly a fan of the region duals coming nearly a month before the actual region tournament (where teams score points based on how well individual wrestlers place in their weight brackets).
“I think it’s too early,” Houston said. “Because once it’s over, you’ve got those two or three weeks of nothing of real importance until you get to area (region).”
He said that leaves plenty of time for injuries.
“I think it ought to be back-to-back so you get it over with instead of dragging it out,” Houston said.
Still, Madison County enters the region tournament wrestling well as of late.
The Red Raiders picked up a big out-of-state victory over the Christmas holidays, winning the Cherokee (N.C.) Invitational Dec. 22-23. Ten teams competed in that event.
Madison County then finished fifth out of 16 teams at the Georgia-Carolina Classic at Hart County this past weekend.
In the victory at Cherokee, Madison County boasted four first-place finishers: Tanner Gordon (103-lb.), Cody Phillips (125-lb.), Isaac Ruiz (145-lb.) and Tyler Adams (215-lb.). The Red Raiders added second-place finishes from Brett Cogins (112-lb.), Colton Phillips (130-lb.) and Kyle Bates (152-lb.). Max Nash (119-lb.), Caleb McCain (135-lb.), Steven Resby (171-lb.), Kyle Gordon (189-lb.) and Matt Dove (heavyweight) all finished third.
While winning the tournament was encouraging, some of the higher-profile teams slated for the event had to back out after some parts of North Carolina received 17 inches of snow.
“So you’ve got to kind of take that with a grain of salt,” Houston said. “But it was good for the kids’ confidence and that sort of thing. It was good to win one.”
At the Georgia-Carolina Classic, which was a duals tournament, Madison County accumulated a 3-2 record.
Individually, Nash (119-lb.) and Colton Phillips (125-lb.) each went 4-0 in their matches. Going 3-1 were Ruiz (145-lb.), Adams (215-lb.) and Dove (heavyweight)
Heading into the 8-AAAA Duals, Cody Phillips has Madison County’s top individual record at 21-1 but is out due to illness. Houston hopes Phillips will return by the Jan. 22-23 East Metro Tournament at Walnut Grove.
Colton Phillips owns the most victories with a 25-5 mark. Other top records include Ruiz (21-2), Nash (15-2), Bates (19-7) and Adams (13-4).
