WRESTLING HOUNDS
Even before this week’s GHSA Traditional State Tournament begins at the Macon Coliseum, the Greyhounds will have already made history. By virtue of finishes in the top six of their respective weight classes at Saturday’s sectionals, a school record nine wrestlers will wrestle at the state tournament.
“It’s really exciting,” Greyhounds head coach Adam Gillhouse said. “It’s the most we’ve qualified in school history, and we’re sending our first freshman since Nate Carr. It’s a good way to roll into state. We’re excited to have that many going.”
The majority of the individual matches in the AAAAA classification are Thursday, set to begin a 1 p.m. with round of 12 matches all the way through the semifinal and consolation quarterfinals. Finals and consolation finals in AAAAA are slated for 4 p.m. Friday.
Chi Anderson at 175 pounds and Arrie Martin in the 138-pound division paced the Greyhounds at sectionals with second-place finishes, and James Rackley’s third-place finish at 157 came with a win in the third-place match to hand his opponent just his fourth loss of the season.
“We had some guys wrestle really, really well. The goal all year is to peak at the right time, and I think we’re starting to,” Gillhouse said. “Walking away from Saturday, you could say some of our guys wrestled the best they had all year.”
The other third-place showing for JCHS came with Will Agudelo at 285. But the list of state qualifiers hardly ended there. Finishing fourth were Hunter McCleskey at 106 pounds, Carson Lumley at 144 with fifth-place showings being posted by Aiden Lipford at 120 pounds, Jackson Brown at 132 with Robert Scott at 150.
Now, with spots at the state tournament clinched, the brightest of lights awaits in Macon.
“It’s like the old saying, ‘the hay is in the barn.’ The goal this week is to do what we do and get better at what we do,” Gillhouse said.
