Due to falling short of the state duals and last week’s weather putting wrestling on hold, finding a way to get back on the mat was key for the Greyhounds in front of this weekend’s region traditional tournament.
Thanks to a schedule adjustment, the Greyhounds got just that on Saturday, going to the Sweet Onion Invitational in Toombs County, where JCHS finished fourth and placed eight wrestlers in the top five individually with three – Barrett Rosenberger, Hunter McCleskey and David Little – taking second.
“Something one of our guys said last week, ‘Life is 10 percent of what happens and 90 percent how you respond.,’” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “We didn’t feel like things were how we wanted at duals, so we took state weekend off and were looking forward to a good week of practice before the weather came in.”
So last weekend, the Greyhounds headed towards Toombs County to a tournament that they a month or ago only planned to take their JV wrestlers to.
JCHS ended up getting more in return, racking up momentum just ahead of the region meet.
McCleskey, Little and Rosenberger led that effort, the latter wrestling against foes in the heavyweight division despite weighing just above 200 pounds.
Rosenberger is not the Greyhounds’ regular heavyweight, but Gillhouse says that could be on track to change going toward next season.
“He can lengthen the match. Our goal with him is to wrestle a full six minutes and see what happens,” Gillhouse said. “He’s successful because he is hard to score on and does not make a lot of mistakes.”
Aside from those three, John Rackley placed third with a fourth-place finish from Dawson Walker and fifth places from Nate McDaniel, Shooter Lumley and Jacob Skinner.
JCHS also took strong finishes in the JV bracket, led by first-place finishes from Tripp Arnold and Caden Napier.
