THOMASVILLE – The Class AAAA team dual wrestling championship didn’t have the finish the  Thomas County Central Yellow Jackets envisioned.

A week after dropping two matches to Perry (43-28) and Spencer (51-27) at the state tournament, Central is eyeing a rebound in the traditional, starting Friday at Cairo in Region 1 competition.

“We won the duals region, which is our team series stuff. Now our sights are set to win the individual region,” said Central coach Matt Tanner. “I think we’ve got six or seven guys who can go win the region individually for themselves. I think we should be able to qualify the whole team to go to the state tournament next week.”

Friday’s traditionals region competition — each team’s wrestlers compete against individual wrestlers from other teams but their scores are counted toward team standings — allows opportunities for David Burgess, the Yellow Jackets’ lone senior and a host of freshmen and sophomores to qualify for state. The state traditionals will be held the following Thursday (Feb. 11) and Friday (Feb. 12) at the Macon Coliseum.

Burgess finished runner-up as a sophomore and fourth as a junior. He’s a threat again to place this year in the 138-pound weight class.

Central was the No. 7 seed in last week’s Elite Eight team competition but fell short in its first trip in Tanner’s tenure. He insists the first matchup against Perry, which later fell to Flowery Branch in the semifinals, was a lot closer than the totals indicated.

“The score against them was 43-28. It seems like a big spread, but it was really a match or two’s difference as far as points go,” Tanner said. 

“Just to know that you’re that close is encouraging because we have a very young team. I’ve got eight guys that are freshmen and one senior. We’ve got a team coming back for the next few years.

“We’ve always focused on the individual aspect and trying to get folks to the individual state tournament. We kind of happened ourselves into this. It just gives us another series to work on during the season; not just worry about individual, but hey man, we can put together a team and go compete as a team against some of the best in the state.”