The Jackson County wrestling team opened their season Saturday with the Blackbeard Duals at Allatoona High School, with the varsity team taking sixth place with a record of 2-3.
The Panthers were next scheduled to face White County and Washington Wilkes at Gordon Street Tuesday night. Results were unavailable at press time.
At the Blackbeard Duals, the varsity team won over Allatoona 52-29, and won over Blessed Trinity 43-30. They lost to Woodland 33-48, North Forsyth 18-63 and to North Cobb 34-34 after a tiebreaker.
Individually, Ryan Shekey went 5-0 in the 112 lb. category; Ryan Howe went 5-0 in the 189 lb. category; Kevin Spicer went 4-1 in the 160 lb. category; Jacob Hyder went 4-1 in the 215 lb. category; and Cole Meaders went 3-2 in the 125 lb. category.
Coach Jason Powers said he knew this tournament would be difficult for the team, and that was what he wanted it to be.
“Every match during the regular season better prepares us for the Area and State tournament,” he said. “If we wrestled average teams throughout the season then we would not be well prepared for the challenges that will face us at the Area or State tournament. I made our schedule tough this year so that we can accomplish our goal of making it to the State Duals tournament this year.”
Powers said his veteran wrestlers rose to the challenge posed to them, and carried a lot of the load for the team.
“All of our returning wrestlers have improved a lot during the off-season, which was very nice to see,” he said. “Everyone wrestled well at times but every wrestler has a lot they can improve upon. It’s always important to get the first match of the season under your belt so you know your strengths and weaknesses and that way we know what to work on.
“I am looking for the varsity to become stronger with every match as wrestlers start to get into their correct weight classes and our younger wrestlers begin to get more experience.”
The JV team also took part in the meet, finishing third with a 4-1 record as they defeated Woodland 50-12, Allatoona 42-20, North Forsyth 42-34 and North Cobb 54-18. The only team to defeat the JV Panthers was Blessed Trinity, 33-39.
Individually, Jamie Stapler went 5-0 in the 103/112 category; Ismael Carrillo-Garcia went 5-0 in the 140 lb. category; Cody Atkins went 5-0 in the 189/215 lb. category; Jamari Davis went 4-0 in the 189/215 lb. category; Bryson Evans went 4-1 in the 135 lb. category; Marvin Ledford went 3-2 in the 103/112 lb. category; Jacob Hogan went 3-2 in the 119 lb. category; Dillon Whitlock went 2-0 in the 285 lb. category; and Alex Cruz went 2-1 in the 285 lb. category.
“I am extremely proud of our JV team and their impressive finish in this tough tournament,” Powers said. “This is one of the best JV finishes that I can think of in the past few years.”
Next up for the Panthers is a trip to Morgan County to face the Bulldogs in Madison on Tuesday.
