For most high school wrestling coaches, the attire of choice is usually something along the lines of khaki pants and either polo shirt, vest or quarter-zip.
But for a brief slice of time on Friday at the Macon Coliseum, that could change for Greyhounds head wrestling coach Adam Gillhouse, and the JCHS wrestlers have a chance to directly impact that.
The annual offer is still on the table between Gillhouse and his wrestlers. If any of them advance to Friday’s firstplace matches of this week’s GHSA traditional state tournament, Gillhouse will swap the usual attire for a complete suit and tie.
Thursday’s matches begin after 9 a.m. for the Greyhounds with the consolation semifinals, consolation finals and overall finals slated for after weigh-ins at 3 p.m.
The chances of a Greyhound wrestler contending for a deep run in their bracket is strong after this past Saturday at Cambridge High School, where a school-record at 12 wrestlers qualified for the state tournament by way of a top-eight finish in their weight class.
But the Greyhound Grapplers didn’t just snake into the top eight across the board and remain content with a trip to the state tournament. Rather, multiple wrestlers started strong and found themselves in the running for weight-class titles as three would go on to wrestle for first place. Noah Pieterick finished second at 113 pounds with 3-0 starts by Arrie Martin at 150 and David Little at 157 pounds propelling them to wrestle for first as both would finish second with Hunter Hardwick doing likewise in the 175-pound division.
JCHS got strong showings on the higher end of its lineup as a 2-0 start keyed Luke Thompson to finish third at 215 pounds and Barrett Rosenberger going on to take fifth at 285 pounds.
But the run of Greyhound wrestlers punching their tickets to the state tournament hardly ended there. Jacob Skinner battled forth to a finish of fifth at 190 pounds, John Rackley placed seventh at 144, and Shooter Lumley rallied to the consolation semifinals before also winning his fifth-place match at 138 pounds.
In addition to the state-qualifying finishes of Dawson Walker taking eighth at 106 and Nate Wilson’s sixth-place at 132 pounds, Hunter McCleskey finished fourth, advancing to the third-place match after winning three early matches.
