Mount de Sales ready to make debut in GHSA team duals

The Mount de Sales wrestling team will be competing in the GHSA team duals championships, which will be held at the Macon Coliseum starting Thursday, for the first time.

So the Cavaliers might as well go into that tournament with a young roster. Mount de Sales, which has eight freshmen in its 14-man lineup and qualified by finishing second in the area tournament, will face second-seeded Mount Zion at 8 a.m. on Friday in the Class A tournament.

"Making it to state in the duals had been a goal of ours, and we thought we had a chance because we have had so many freshmen take big steps forward this year," said Mount de Sales head coach Carsten Franklin, whose team has a 7-2 record against other Class A programs this year. "But wrestling in a meet this size is all new to us, and we will have to see how our kids react when the lights come on and 10 mats are going at the same time. We will either turn it up or turn it off.

"Seriously, though, the idea was to be able to get our freshmen in the limelight early in their careers and prepare them for future years."

The Cavaliers are led by their lone senior, Matt Moore, who has compiled a 12-4 record. Freshmen Jackson Schofield, Christian Sims and Chiagoziem Iteogu, sophomore Michael Garcia, and juniors Noah Cunard and Dylan Mixon have combined for a 76-28 record to keep the Cavaliers in most matches.

"We will see some extremely good teams, but our goal is to make it to Saturday," Franklin said. "Going against someone as good as Mount Zion will be a huge test for us, but I feel like we will come out and compete, hopefully at the highest level of the year."

Making it to this tournament has been on Moore's mind since the beginning of the season.

"I went to the state individuals to watch last year, and it was amazing," said Moore, who has been wrestling for three years. "I knew that we would have a great chance as a team to make it to duals this year with so many good young guys, and hopefully a lot of us will make it to individuals also. But right now we are focusing on Friday, and we have had a great week of practice.

"We don't know much about Mount Zion, but I am going to be cautious at the beginning and then see what happens. We feel like we are capable of winning a match here, and that would make it even better. But regardless, I am super excited to be going, and I already have butterflies."

Jones County is the lone Middle Georgia team in the Class AAAAA tournament, while Upson-Lee, Crisp County and West Laurens qualified in Class AAAA, Toombs County in Class AAA and East Laurens, Fitzgerald and Jeff Davis in Class AA.

Jones County opens against LaGrange at 2:45 p.m. on Thursday.

"This is our fourth straight year making it to duals, and we have lost the first match every time, but truly I would be shocked if we lost that first match this time," said Jones County head coach Jay Crook, whose team will be led by Torrez Finney, who won his individual state title last year. "We have spent most of our season wrestling in Atlanta tournaments to get ready for this, and we feel very good about our chances to advance."