Toombs County Bulldog Wrestling Keeping Busy
Courtesy of TCHS
The Toombs County High School Bulldogs wrestling team competed at Windsor Forest recently and then were at the 17th Annual Yellow Jackets Duals at Jeff Davis.
At Windsor Forest
An in-region dual hosted by Windsor Forest garnered some significant varsity action for the MatDawgs on Tuesday, November 28. The night began with a dual against AAAA opponent New Hampstead High School. The MatDawgs showed no mercy with a 62 to 18 win.
The MatDawgs set their eyes on region foe Windsor Forest for the final dual of the night. The MatDawgs dropped a few individual matches along the way, but cruised to a win over the Knights, 45 to 18.
“We brought several of our younger guys to get them experience at the varsity level tonight. It was well needed. Many of these wrestlers will be the next super stars for our team and it is also important for them to understand that they contributed to our success this season too. Every wrestler on my team has a place and can contribute to getting us to the next level of competitiveness we are striving to reach.” Coach Allen said of the overall team’s performance.
At Jeff Davis
The 17th Annual Yellow Jacket Duals were hosted by Jeff Davis this past weekend and with 30 teams at the event, the MatDawgs finished in 7th place. Their only losses on the weekend were the teams that finished 1st, 2nd, and 5th place.
On Friday the Mat-Dawgs posted a phenomenal 4-0 record, including posting a 36-34 win over preseason 3A #7 ranked Coahulla Creek.
The first dual on Saturday was against powerhouse preseason 5A #9 ranked Jones County. An unfortunate mishap with injury and weight management forced the Mat-Dawgs to have to bump around to make up ground. The MatDawgs did not go down without a fight, but dropped the dual 30-45. “It’s definitely unfortunate we had a guy get injured and another miss weight. It’s part of the nuances of our sport though and part of the adversity that our team needs to see to prepare for the future. This kind of situation may arise during State Duals, and hopefully because of this tournament, we will be more prepared to overcome it.”, stated Allen regarding the second day hiccups.
This led to the bracketing portion of the tournament. The top 2 teams from each pool, including the MatDawgs, entered the GOLD bracket. First match in tournament action was 6A Brunswick. The dual came down to the last 2 matches, the MatDawgs dropped a 37-36 heartbreaker. The emotional drain from a barn-burner dual left the MatDawgs demoralized. They went on to drop a dual against Ware County, 48-26. Then bouncing back and finishing the tournament with a win over Effingham County, 50-18.
Coach Allen says, “This is always a great tournament to gauge where we are at. Every year we come it magnifies some flaws we have and need to fix. We’ll go back to the drawing board and be a better team because of this.”
