The Jackson County Panthers wrestling team split the night at their last match on Nov. 25 at home, as they won over Washington-Wilkes, then lost to White County.
Now the Panthers will zero in on the task at hand, as they prepare to play host to 24 teams this weekend in the Panther Invitational, including Jefferson and Commerce, beginning on Friday.
The Panthers started out with a victory at Gordon Street Tuesday night, as they defeated Washington-Wilkes 60-18. They then faced White County, who came away with a 57-21 win to make Jackson County 1-1 on the night.
Several wrestlers won in both matches, including Cole Meaders, Kevin Spicer, Charles Smothers, Ryan Howe and Jacob Hyder.
“I knew coming into the season that our schedule was going to be a difficult one, but I had our end goal in mind when making the schedule,” said coach Jason Powers. “We are currently 3-4 on the season with losses to some quality programs as well as a few wins against some quality programs. We had some big wins against a very young Washington-Wilkes team and came up short against White County.”
Powers said that he knew going into the match against White County that the first two matches would determine the outcome overall. The Panthers lost both of those matches.
“We were leading in both of the matches and then got pinned in both matches,” he said. “At that point I knew it was going to be difficult for us to win. The score is a lot worse than the match actually was. It was a very competitive match and if a few close matches would have swung our way we could have come out on top.”
Powers said that White County had a very strong team physically, but he felt his team was more technically sound than they were.
“We were unable to execute due to being overpowered by our competition,” he said.
Powers said he believes that with each loss, his team is getting better.
“Our younger wrestlers are getting some very good experience and our older wrestlers are getting a lot of tough matches. Everything at this point in the season is about preparing us for Area and State matches.
“I feel that the tough dual matches will prepare us for our Area Dual tournament in January.”
The Panthers were scheduled to face Morgan County and Newton County on the road Tuesday. Results were unavailable at press time.
