The state’s top wrestlers make their way in the middle of each February to the Macon Coliseum for the GHSA state traditional championships. The even more select company finds themselves competing for a state title in the later rounds amidst all of the pomp and circumstance of being introduced in the center of the coliseum crowd.
Jones County’s Arrie Martin found himself in that elite group Friday night in the Macon Coliseum, giving the Greyhounds their best individual showing at the state tournament since Torrez Finney’s back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016 as he finished as the 4A state runner-up in the 150-pound weight class. After a 2-0 start in his bracket, a semifinal win late Thursday against David Jewell of Cass by a 5-4 decision sent Martin into Friday’s final, where he fell to J’Veion Redmond of Ola.
Martin wasn’t the only Greyhounds wrestler competing into the latter rounds. Friday’s on-mat placement bouts also included the consolation semifinals and finals, where freshman Noah Pieterick found himself on Friday. He began his tournament with wins by fall and major decision to make it to the semifinals, where he lost by major decision. He nearly made it to Friday’s third-place match, losing by a razor-thin 3-2 margin to Brodie Drake of Madison County, going on to come in fifth.
Pieterick was among the JCHS wrestlers soaking in all that is the state tournament, as the Greyhounds had a program-record 12 wrestlers competing. That included David Little at 157 pounds, who stayed alive before bowing out in the third consolation round.
Other state qualifiers were Dawson Walker, Hunter McCleskey, Nate Wilson, Shooter Lumley, John Rackley, Hunter Hardwick, Jacob Skinner, Luke Thompson and Barrett Rosenberger.
