Middle Georgia teams fall at GHSA team duals

It was not a good morning Friday for the Middle Georgia wrestling teams trying to advance into the semifinals in their prospective classes at the GHSA duals championships at the Macon Coliseum.

All of the area's teams were sent to the consolation bracket with losses, but West Laurens (Class AAAA), Fitzgerald (Class AA) and Treutlen (Class A) are still alive for third-place finishes. Consolation semifinals are at 9 a.m. (classes A, AA and AAA) and 11 a.m. (classes AAAA, AAAAA and AAAAAA) on Saturday, with finals at 1 p.m. Overall finals are at 3 p.m.

One of the closer matches involved West Laurens, which lost 42-31 to Buford. West Laurens grabbed an early 6-0 lead when Marshall Achord and Joseph Horne won their matches and upped the lead to 15-6 when Logan McGowan won by decision and Evan Stokes pinned his opponent.

But Buford answered by winning five straight matches, all by pins to take a 36-15 lead. West Laurens got a win from Ben Deal, and then Cam Butler and Ty Kight won by forfeit to trim Buford's lead to 36-31, but Buford got a pin in the final match to get the win.

"It's very frustrating for our wrestling team because we struggle to get over this hump and make it to the Final Four," said first-year West Laurens head coach Michael Slaughter, who was a three-time state champion for the Raiders from 2004-06. "We just have to go back to the drawing board and try and get better. We had two matches that we were winning, and we ended up getting pinned in, and that was the big difference.

"I don't know, we just didn't wrestle to the best of our abilities in those matches, but I believe our kids will come back hungry and be in the battle for third place."

Mount de Sales, which is making its first appearance at the event, lost 63-18 to Mount Zion. The Cavaliers, who had eight freshmen taking the mat Friday, got pins from Jackson Schofield, Noah Cunard and Dylan Mixon, but the Cavaliers were pinned nine times by a more experienced Mount Zion squad.

"We pretty much got what we expected (Friday) morning, and all I can ask my kids to do is to come out and compete, and I think we did that," Mount de Sales head coach Carsten Franklin said. "But overall I was pleased with the effort. We have a bunch of 14-year-olds on this team that did not crumble under the big lights "

Jones County also had high hopes of advancing through Friday morning, but Woodland won the first seven matches, and the Greyhounds could not bounce back as they lost 53-18. Winners for Jones County were Nicholas Nelson, Darrell Duggan, Daniel Curry and Torrez Finney.

Treutlen beat St. Francis 65-12 in a Class A first-round match, and faced Mt. Zion in a semifinal. But the Vikings lost 45-34 and into a consolation match against Turner County, a 55-18 winner over Eagles Landing Christian.

Other teams went into the afternoon still alive for third place.

Crisp County topped Pike County 42-34 in its second Class AAAA wrestleback match, setting up a meeting with West Laurens after the Raiders advanced with a 49-22 win over St. Pius X.

West Laurens topped Crisp County 57-15 and into a match with Locust Grove for third place.

Toombs County won its first wrestleback after a 48-19 loss to Lumpkin County in Class AAA, beating Spencer 40-36 to earn a spot against McNair.

McNair won 38-31 to advance to a chance for fourth place.

East Laurens and Fitzgerald battled in a first-round wrestleback with Fitzgerald taking a 51-28 win to advance to face Lovett for third

Jeff Davis faced Wesleyan in Class AA, and won 40-31. The Yellow Jackets will wrestle Armuchee for fourth place.

St. Francis ended Mount de Sales' trip with a 60-21 win.

Jones County was eliminated Friday in Class AAAAA with a 48-30 loss to South Paulding.

This story was originally published January 15, 2016 at 7:24 PM with the headline "Middle Georgia teams fall at GHSA team duals ."