Morgan County High School Mat Dogs move nine wrestlers on to Sectionals

story by nick nunn • photos by jesse walker

After last week’s 1-AAA Area tournament, nine members of MCHS’ Mat Dogs find themselves only one tournament away from the State Finals.

In the Area tournament, Morgan County wrestlers accounted for six Area Champions, one second-place finisher, and two third-place finishers.

As a result of having so many wrestlers go deep into the brackets, Morgan County, as a team, came out on top of all of the schools with 274.5 points – over 75 points more than Appling County, the second-place finishers.

Jacob McAlister (120), Quentavious Jackson (138), Austin Ross (182), Stewart Spence (195), Bailey Ross (220), and Preston Langley (280) proved themselves as Area Champions this year; each went 4-0 during the Area tournament.
Coach John Robbins had a good word for each of his champions, characterizing Austin Ross’ performance as “complete dominance” and describing Spence as an “unstoppable force.”

“Bailey Ross destroyed everything in his path,” said Robbins about Bailey, who was en route to his third straight area championship during the tournament.

Robbins continued his praise about Morgan County sophomore, Preston Langley.
“Preston [was the] only unseeded wrestler to win the title, and beat several absolute studs to do it.”
Jack Leclair (126), Morgan County’s only second-place finisher, went 3-1, only losing a 2-6 decision in the final match of his weight class.

Nathan Lundy (106) won two matches by pin after falling into the consolation bracket, which earned himself a third-place finish.
D’Monta Wright (152) also had two victories in the consolation bracket, a 12-10 decision and an 8-6 decision. Those wins assured Wright of a third-place finish as well.

“Great job by our kids to secure a fourth consecutive region title,” said Coach Robbins after the Area tournament. “We will have nine represented this weekend at sectionals, [the] second highest total behind Banks Co., who has 10 competing.”
The nine Morgan County wrestlers will be competing in the Eastern Sectional tournament this Saturday, Feb. 9, which is going to be held at the MCHS gym.

The (still tentative) schedule for the Eastern Sectional tournament has the quarterfinal matches beginning at 10 a.m. Saturday morning. If everything goes according to the current time plan, the final matches and consolation finals will take place between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday.

Stay tuned in to the Morgan County Citizen’s Facebook and Twitter accounts for schedule updates leading up to the Sectional tournament this weekend.

Printed in the February 7, 2013 edition