The Union County High School wrestling team competed in the Red Raider Duels at Greenville High School and brought home a third place finish. The Jackets went 9-2 in the tournament with losses to only top ranked, powerhouse wrestling programs Lexington and Eastside.

“”It’s probably the most proud I’ve been of the high school team yet,” said Head Coach G.B. McDaniel. “We lost to Lexington, who is number one in 4A, and to Eastside, who is number one in 3A. Both of those schools have outstanding wrestling programs every year. I even think we could’ve done better against Eastside than we actually did but we wrestled them tough and held them to their least amount of points scored so I can’t be upset about that.”

Union County’s seven wins were by 25 points or better including a 63-13 victory over Pickens and a 54-18 showing against Greer — a win that according to McDaniel was payback for the two losses his team suffered to its nemesis last year.

“We got a little revenge,” he said. “We also got to see some teams we’re probably going to see in the playoffs. This tournament was really about getting a feel for a two-day tournament. That’s the main reason we scheduled this. Upper State is a two-day tournament and I didn’t feel like we were ready for it last year. This year, we’re planning to be ready.”

The Jackets have one final region match tonight at Chapman and a tournament at Chester on Saturday before playoffs begin. With just one loss on the season, Union County still has the possibility of finishing first place in Region III-AAA although they’ll need a little help.

“We’d need for Chapman to beat Broome when they wrestle this week and we have to win our last match tonight against Chapman,” said McDaniel. “If we’d just beat Broome like we should’ve, we wouldn’t have to depend on the outcome of other teams matches. But like I told the team, I’m kind of tired of the should’ve, could’ve, would’ve’s. It’s time to actually make it happen.”