Pickens Routes Ridgeland: Pounces on Panthers 66-18.

The Pickens High School wrestling team faced off in Area competition with the Gilmer High School Bobcats and Ridgeland High School Panthers. While the defending state Duals and Traditional AAAA champion Bobcats bested the Dragons, 69-3, Pickens picked up a victory, pummeling and pouncing on the Panthers 66-18.Gilmer defeated Pickens by a score of 69-3, with the Dragons only win coming via a 12-5 decision by Koby Milner.

The Dragons then took a break while the Bobcats and Ridgeland wrestled. Once again, Gilmer was dominant, making easy work of the Panthers.

In the final dual of the night, Pickens faced off against Ridgeland. This dual was seen as the most important one of the year for Coach Grady Flanagan, as he was looking to see how well his team would match up against other teams in the region.

Senior Will Logan got the dual started right with a pin at 160 lbs.

Josh Massey received a forfeit at 170 lbs.

Senior Cole Millsap wrestled a very good match, showing great technique to fend off an early rush from Ridgeland’s Austin Coppinger. After weathering the storm, Millsap was able to turn the tables on his opponent and score a second period pin, putting the Dragons up 18-0.

Senior John Holbert was next up at 195 pounds. Holbert has wrestled well early in the season, despite missing almost a month of practice while playing for the Dragons’ Football team. Holbert worked his usual even keel match and wore his opponent down to score a pin.

Next up at 220 lbs was Freshman, Trey Lunn. Trey wrestled hard against one of Ridgeland’s older wrestlers but the experience gap was too great as he was pinned in the first period. The score stood at 24-6 in the Dragons’ favor.

Another Freshman, Tevis Hawkins, stepped on the mat in the 285 lb weight class to pick up a forfeit for the Dragons. Koby Milner showed his abilities once again at 106 lbs, beating his opponent in under a minute to move his season record to 11-1.

The Dragons then traded forfeits at the next two weight classes. Michael Hernandez picked up a forfeit at 113 while the Dragons forfeited 6 points to the Panthers at 120. Freshman Lane Perry scored a first period pin against Ridgeland at 126 lbs to make the score 48-12 and clinch the dual for the Dragons.

The two teams then traded forfeits again. Ridgeland picked up the points at 132 and gave them right back to Pickens at 138. Sophomore Michael Casey wrestled one of his best matches to date and scored a second period pin after hitting a Granby to reverse his opponent.

Senior Nathan Cheek closed the night out with another pin to move the final score to 66-18 in favor of the Dragons. The dual win put the Dragons’ overall dual record at 2-2-1.

Coach’s Thoughts:

The kids wrestled great, even in the Gilmer Dual. Wrestling scores don’t often indicate your lack of ability. They often indicate how much better the other team is. Gilmer routinely beats the best teams in the state and the Southeast. We saw a lot of positives in our kids tonight. They were trying some of the stuff we have taught them and they are starting to break the bad habits they had developed. We got some of our young kids their first wins and started to see our dual lineup really take shape.

Coach Flanagan recently sat down with FYN Sports to discuss his inaugural year as PHS head coach.