Clayton News Daily

By Anthony Rhoads

Henry County won and Stockbridge came in second in the Area 2-AAAAA Duals held Saturday.

Both Henry County and Stockbridge advance to the Class AAAAA State Duals this Friday and Saturday at McEachern High School.

The highest-placing Clayton County team Saturday was Morrow, which went 2-2 and was third in Pool A.

"They all wrestled pretty good," Morrow head coach Tom Van Tone said.

Key wrestlers for Morrow were Corey Lyles at 112 pounds, David Lewis at 125 and Josh Ekandem at 171.

"They did really good," Van Tone said. "It was good because this gets them ready for the (traditional) area tournament in two weeks."

Morrow didn't have a complete squad but still managed to be competitive in every match except for Henry County. Morrow beat Westside-Macon 42-24 and Mt. Zion 52-48. The Mustangs lost to Warner Robins 48-36 and Henry County 66-16.

"Warner Robins beat us just because they had more people," Van Tone said.

Not having enough people also plagued Jonesboro, which has several guys out because of injuries.

Jonesboro beat Northside 54-26 but lost to Stockbridge 56-21, Houston County 45-31 and Eagle's Landing 40-39. Jonesboro tied Eagle's Landing at 39-39 but Eagle's Landing won the tiebreaker with six first takedowns while Jonesboro had just four first takedowns.

"If we had all of our guys, we would have done better," Jonesboro head coach Chip Wludyga said. "We knew we would be down; we've been telling them to get ready for the area tournament."

Even though his team went 1-3 and finished fourth in Pool B, Wludyga said he was proud of the way his guys wrestled.

"All my kids have wrestled well today," he said. "There worked hard and did what we told them to do. They definitely came ready to wrestle. We had a good day."

Last year, Jonesboro advanced to the state duals and were area dual runners-up to Henry County.

Mt. Zion also went 1-3 and finished fourth in Pool A.

The Bulldogs beat Westside 42-36 but to Henry County 69-6, Warner Robins 54-23 and Morrow 52-48.