MORGAN COUNTY
The Morgan County Wrestling team placed second among 12 teams this past Saturday at the Tommy Warren Duals, held at Oconee County High School.
The Mat Dogs went 4-1 over the course of the day in the dual-style tournament, with wins over Elbert County (66-18), Monroe Area (52-26), Social Circle B (39-27) and Athens Christian (60-9). Their only loss came against Social Circle A (51-19) in the finals.
Caleb Turner had five wins on the day at the Tommy Warren Duals, while Dylan Rivers, Miles Butler, Paul Bassette, Tripp Davis and Cason Turner only had one loss each. Each weight class provided at least one victory for the Mat Dogs on Saturday.
Morgan County is trending in the right direction under head coach Jared Rector, now in the middle of his second season at the helm of the program. He’s seen a lot of progress this year.
“We’ve had a really good start to the season by building off of everything that we started last year,” Rector said. “We have some great senior leadership with Cason Turner and Dylan Rivers coming back. Also, the additions of new seniors Nymh Carrera and Johnathan Butler have been good as well. Those four guys have helped lead the way for us.”
Rector added he’s also seen some other guys step up and make a difference at the varsity level.
“Since the season has started, Josh Harvey has impressed me a lot as a freshman. He’s made some appearances on varsity,” Rector explained. “Kewon Hill has also shown a lot of grit as a freshman having to start for basically since the beginning of the season. Evan Johnson is a sophomore, but he missed most of last year due to an injury. He had a really good start to the year as well. Tripp Davis is a sophomore who’s improved a lot since last season.”
The second-year head coach also highlighted Bassette, who placed at the state level in 2021-22.
“He’s a sophomore that is our state place winner and has provided a lot of strong leadership down in that part of the lineup as well,” Rector said. “We’ve got a deep roster this year.”
The progress the program has made has drawn the attention of the GHSA. The Mat Dogs are currently ranked as one of the top teams in Class AAA after all they’ve accomplished so far.
According to Rector, placing second at a tournament like the Tommy Warren Duals is huge.
“That was a pretty good showing. There were some good teams that came there,” Rector said of Saturday’s performance. “The team we lost to, Social Circle, we last wrestled them a year ago. They beat us by about 60 points, whereas this time they only beat us by about 20 points. So, we’ve narrowed that gap a little, which was a really good measuring stick for us.”
Morgan County competed at the East Metro Duals in Monroe on Wednesday. The Mat Dogs will resume their season in early January during the new academic semester.