AFTER rising to regional and national success last month, a battled-tested Jefferson wrestling team has turned to matters in-state this month.
Namely championships.
The Dragons romped through the area duals this past weekend and now aim for their 11th straight state duals title.
“They’ve done very well,” coach Doug Thurmond said. “We’ve got to keep the hammer down right now. We can’t let up.”
Jefferson will be taking that hammer with it to Macon, where it hopes to defend its longstanding state duals streak this weekend.
Unlike last year, when Sonoraville emerged from across the state as a clear-cut rival, it’s not yet certain who poses the biggest threat to Jefferson’s streak.
“It’s kind of a Duke’s mixture right now,” Thurmond said. “Your really don’t know.”
Thurmond pointed to teams like Calhoun, GAC, Lovett, Dublin, Toombs County, Spencer and Jordan who could all be dangerous.
“Everybody has got people back,” Thurmond said. “You just don’t know.”
Jefferson breezed through its three area duals matches over the weekend, winning by a combined score of 199-9. That included a 57-6 win over Elbert County for the 8-AA title.
In fact, Jefferson lost just three individual matches in the Friday-Saturday tournament.
The Dragons opened with an 80-0 blanking of Oglethorpe and followed with a 62-3 victory over intra-county foe Jackson County. That put Jefferson in the finals, which it won easily over Elbert County.
“We knew they were going to be tough,” Thurmond said of Elbert County. “They have several state champions in the lineup.”
Despite the lopsided final score, Thurmond said this was a hard-fought win.
“Several of those matches were really tight but we ended up squeaking through,” Thurmond said. “So that’s a big key for us.”
The coach said he felt his team’s December travels left it well-prepared for the area duals and hopes that experience continues to pay off.
“You’re having to deal with good athletes (at those tournaments) that can wrestle and then you come in here and you’re prepared,” he said. “You’re ready to go. So they were well-prepared. They were ready to go just by — not maybe so much by coaching — but from what we’d laid out for them in December.”
Now, they hope it adds up to another state championship trophy. Jefferson has won 25 state titles between dual and traditional competition, the last 21 of which have come since 2001.
The quest for no. 26 (and the 11th in the duals format) starts this weekend.
