It was a solid showing for the Mat Panthers of Jackson County over the weekend, as they placed in the top eight at the state Dual Tournament in Macon, with the team going 2-2 on the weekend.
The meet started out on a high note, as Jackson County took the win over Westover 46-21 to open up the meet. The second round proved to be a little more difficult, however, as the Panthers fell to Lafayette 51-17.
“We had a couple of close matches against Lafayette,” said coach Jason Powers. “For state seeding purposes, it was a great match for us.”
Jackson County then moved to the consolation bracket, where they defeated Lagrange, then went on to face Heritage.
That’s where the weekend came to an end for the Panthers, as Heritage picked up a 41-26 victory.
“It could have been a lot closer,” Powers said. “I had to bump a couple of kids around, and gambled a little bit and came up short. If we would have played it safe, we would have lost something like 38-31, but there was no reason to play it safe and lose. You might as well try to gamble and see if you can’t come out big, but we came out a little short. But that put us in the top eight, so it was a good tournament for us.”
Ryan Howe went undefeated on the weekend, including a win over the number two wrestler in the state in his weight class. Kevin Spicer also had a successful weekend, losing only one match to the returning state champion from Heritage, 10-6. Izzy Carillo-Garcia also went undefeated on the weekend.
Now the focus for the Mat Panthers turns back to the traditional format, with the sectionals and state meets on the horizon.
“We have basically two weekends that we have individual tournaments to try to get the focus back at individual instead of being at dual,” Powers said. “We’ll work to get kids back at the weight class they’re supposed to be at rather than bumping them around.”
Powers said he doesn’t expect the transition to be an extremely difficult one, as the team has been facing some tough competition in the last few weeks.
“I think they’ve been growing individually along with as a team. Now it’s just a change up to keeping the kids at weight, and making sure they get criteria going into the sectionals and into the state tournament.”
The Mat Panthers were scheduled to travel to North Hall on Tuesday to face North Hall, Johnson and Banks County. Results of that meet were unavailable at press time.
Jackson County will next travel to Social Circle on Saturday to take part in the Redskin Rumble.
