Amidst an afternoon splashed by sun and with the bustle of the Main Street Gray Downtown Christmas Market as the backdrop, wrestling became an outside sport on Saturday afternoon.
In the shadow of the Christmas tree in downtown Gray that would be lit later that evening, the Greyhounds hosted Dublin in an outdoor match, winning 59-18 with the wrestling mat centered in the middle of the street with supporters and onlookers surrounding the scene to watch as JCHS began with pins in the first two contested matches of the dual meet before victories in two of the final three matches, capped by Garrett Greene edging his way to a 2-1 win in the heavyweight division. Saturday’s event, the Main Street Dual, was Jones County’s second year in a row hosting an outdoor match in downtown Gray.
“It was a good environment; the weather was good. There was a good crowd with a lot of people here. It’s such a great event for our community that we’re glad to be part of,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “Our guys get to compete in front of some people who have never seen wrestling before. Everyone here gets to see it and can hang out and see the Christmas tree lit later.”
Whether those flocking toward the makeshift wrestling footprint near the pair of traffic lights intersections were steady supporters or curious observers, they saw the Greyhounds stake out an early advantage with Noah Pieterick and Nate McDaniel registering early pins before wins by Shooter Lumley via a technical fall and pins by John Rackley and Arrie Martin added to the advantage. David Little’s 6-3 win put JCHS up 50-12 prior to wins by Jacob Skinner and Greene to close out the dual match.
“We’re always competing hard,” Gillhouse said. “But things like this, they are great for the community, too.”
It’s an event that does not happen if not for the work behind the scenes of parents, wrestlers and support in the community. Whether by being on site to set up a wrestling mat and other nearby elements in the morning or quickly removing the mat and surrounding chairs and items from the street afterwards, Saturday’s Main Street Dual takes place in significant part due to the help of supporters of the program.
“We’re able to do a lot of cool stuff because we have parents that are so supportive,” Gillhouse said. “We even have others who are not parents, just community members that are so supportive.”
Before all of Saturday’s festivities in downtown Gray, the Greyhounds headed north on Wednesday for the Archer Invitational, placing sixth out of 17 teams as Pieterick won first with Martin and Hunter McCleskey placing second. Other placers included Dawson Walker and Rackley in fifth, Skinner coming in fourth and Barrett Rosenberger claiming sixth.
“We saw some stuff that we can work on and also saw lots of success there,” Gillhouse said.
The Greyhounds will head to Covington on Friday for a two-day tournament at the Southern Slam hosted by Eastside.
