Jones County hired Justin Rogers to be its new head coach and the move was approved by the county board Tuesday night. Rogers comes from Griffin High School where he served as offensive coordinator last season during the Bears' perfect 15-0 season and run to the Class AAAA state championship. 

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Many schools at or near the top of the respective classifications were out of action last week due to spring break.

There was, however, plenty of marquee matches in Class AA. Lovett and Westminster faced each other

Photo by Richard Craine

for the second time in nine days and, once again, the arch rivals played to a shootout. Westminster prevailed at home earlier in the season but this time it was Lovett, which came out on top following a scoreless tie last Friday. The Lions, who also beat Wesleyan last week, are up to No. 2 in the rankings behind Greater Atlanta Christian. Westminster, which scored a win over Woodward earlier in the week, is third.

In Class A, Providence Christian tumbled to eighth after losing to Savannah Christian. Paideia climbed to fourth on the strength of victories over Galloway and Pace Academy.

In Class AAAAAA, South Forsyth exited the top 10 following losses to Harrison and West Forsyth. East Coweta moved into the 10th spot.

SEE LEFT PANEL FOR RANKINGS

Dawson County edged West Hall 1-0 on Tuesday in a significant region battle. Junior Brandon Lund scored in the first half off of a Ben Leaver assist and the Tigers handed West Hall its first region loss. ... Johnson-Gainsville scored a 5-1 victory over Madison County on Tuesday and clinched the Region 8-AAAA title. The 15-0 Knights were led by a Barut Perez hat-trick. Johnson, currently ranked No. 2 in Class AAAA, hosts Class AAAAA No. 2 Gainesville (12-1-1) on Friday.

No. 1 McIntosh scored its

Photo by Nill Toulme

10th straight shutout on Tuesday in a 8-0 rout over Drew. The undefeated Chiefs (16-0) own a 39-game game win streak that dates back to 2012. Over the past 10 games, McIntosh has outscored its opponents 72-0 and is holding a 103-4 goal advantage this season.

Calhoun junior Sergio Alvarez scored four goals and added one assist on Tuesday in the Yellow Jackets' 10-0 win over Model. Calhoun is 15-0-1 this season and has shut out 13-of-16 opponents. Alvarez has charged the offense since the start of March and has netted 21 goals in Calhoun's last 11 games. Alvarez has two four-goal performances over the span and a total of three hat-tricks.

Class AAAAAA No. 9 Lassiter beat No. 2 Lambert 2-1 on Tuesday and moved to 11-5. ... Central Gwinnett won a 2-0 region contest with Parkview on Tuesday to improve to 12-3-1. The Black Knights sit behind 15-1 Brookwood in Region 8-AAAAAA and will close out the regular season on Friday at home against Loganville. Brookwood beat Berkmar 3-1 on Tuesday and will visit Parkview on Friday before closing out the regular season at home with Grayson on Monday.  

With regular season meets in the rearview mirror, the next week and a half will be spent looking ahead to the State Preliminary Meet on April 26 at Dunwoody. Each program and gymnast in attendance will be competing for the right to participate in the state championship on May 2 at Westminster. 

The minimum qualifying score for team to reach the preliminary meet this year was 96.0 and the all-around qualifying score was set at 34.0. In order to compete in an individual event, gymnasts need a score of 8.5 or better during the regular season.

Photo by LHS Gymnastics

Team scores are determined by the top three individual scores and those are then tallied to determine a team's event score (bar, beam, floor, vault). Each team may enter four gymnasts per event, which includes all-around and the top three scores from each event determine a team's score for that event.

This season has seen a deep field of teams obtain new heights. Camden County's Tierra Acoff scored a 36.3 all-around score to qualify for state earlier this month in a dual meet with Lowndes and helped the Wildcats qualify with a team score of 101.9 (the highest team score in school history). Newnan's Sydney Goad has been the Cougars' star and scored a 38.05 all-around score in Newnan's meet with Henry County, Ola and Pike County earlier this month. Goad scored a 9.75 on vault and a 9.4 on beam and her teammate Elizabeth Hovey finished with a 36.575 all-around score that meet. The combo of Goad and Hovey gives Newnan a good chance to improve from last year's fifth-place team finish at state.

Lakeside-DeKalb standout Meg Stephens led the Vikings to a third straight county title this season and became the second gymnast in DeKalb County history to record three straight all-around titles. Stephens owns 11 DeKalb County gold medals in individual events and will return to the site of her three-peat after helping her team notch a 99.425 qualifying score and an all-around mark of 35.075.

Carrollton has been consistent throughout this season and only Buford has been able to outscore the Trojans. In its last meet, Carrollton scored 106.9 points to edge runner-up Forsyth Central's 105.9. In March, Carrollton scored even higher with an impressive 108.3 in the House of Troy Tournament. Carrollton placed third in the state last year with a 107.4 team score. Both Carrollton and Buford are deep with super stars and Buford's 110.4 team score in the House of Troy is one of the top scores this season. For perspective, Lambert won the 2012-13 state title with a score of 109.575.

Neither Carrollton nor Buford has won a gymnastics state title before, but that is not a surprise considering this is just Buford's second season. The depth present on these two squads could change that. When the teams went head-to-head at Lassiter on March 11, Buford finished first in every event except for the bars (fourth place). Carrollton grabbed first in the bars with a 26.650 and finished close behind Buford for second place in each of the other three events.