WRESTLING WRAP-UP
The current structure of the GHSA state wrestling tournament makes for a long day, starting with morning weigh-ins with some sessions going late into the night. In the end, the goal for any wrestler is to make it through the opening rounds and into the next day’s championship and consolation final matches.
In a image of both the standard set for the program in recent years and its exciting future, the Greyhounds had a pair of wrestlers in that spotlight last Friday at the Macon Coliseum with Hunter McCleskey and Chi Anderson in consolation finals, rallying back from early losses.
Anderson, a senior, finished his career with a 7-3 win in the consolation final to finish third at 175 pounds with McCleskley finishing fourth following a loss in his third-place match, They, along with James Rackley at 157 pounds where he finished fifth, gave Jones County three state placers, finishing 12th in AAAAA as a team at the state tournament.
“I was glad to end it with a good win, that’s a really good kid,” Anderson said following his win on Friday.
Anderson took an early loss to Ola on Thursday but bounced back with a vengeance afterwards, getting a pair of wins via pin to move into the third-place match where he got an early lead and used that cushion to win 7-3, raising his arms in thunderous triumph as the final seconds ran out in the third period.
“Finishing third, it (stinks) I couldn’t go for first or second,” Anderson said. “But it’s like coach said, ‘you want to end your career with a win in your last match.’” McCleskey got a strong start, winning 17-4. He’d bounce back after a loss to his Ola opponent, getting a pair of clutch 5-4 wins sandwiched around a win via pin to move him into wrestling for third, where he would end up fourth overall as a freshman.
Rackley got a strong start as well, gaining an 11-9 win by decision prior to a win by fall and 10-5 to help him lock up a finish of fifth to end his high school career.
The future is bright for the Greyhounds, who took nine wrestlers to last week’s state tournament, only two of whom graduate. Other state qualifiers were Aiden Lipford, Jackson Brown, Arrie Martin, Carson Lumley, Robert Scott and Will Agudelo, carrying with them the experience of wrestling in the setting of a state tournament.
“I feel like coming in, I didn’t have to get here as early, so I got to kind of sit down and get all the ‘what ifs’ out of the way. I wanted to come in and take control.”
