Just before schools were closed and high school sports suspended in Arkansas due to the coronavirus, the GHS wrestling team put an exclamation point on what had already been a historic season of accomplishments.
Head coach John Kincade and two of his best wrestlers participated in the annual Meet of Champions competition earlier this month in Clarksville at the University of the Ozarks.
Kincade was selected to coach the Blue team, while wrestlers Jason Allen and Tyler Crossno represented their GHS teammates in the competition.
Allen was a state champion at 160 pounds, while Crossno earned his crown at 220 pounds.
The Class 5A Bulldogs earned their first ever AAA-sanctioned state title in late February after winning their second consecutive Dual State title a week earlier.
The Arkansas Activities Association (AAA), which oversees and regulates all high school sports in the state, are considering a move to also sanction a dual state championship in the future.
In the Meet of Champs, Allen won his match against Shiloh Christian’s Justin Goddard, 3-2. Crossno was pinned by Little Rock Central’s 6A state champion Jermaine Taylor, whom Crossno defeated earlier this year.
According to Coach Kincade, the Meet of Champions pairs two of the three classification’s (4A, 5A, 6A) state champions against each other.
“We had a committee decide which two state champions of the three would wrestle each other. If a state champion wasn’t available, they would ask a state runner-up,” he explained.
“The other coach and I had a draft to select the other 12 guys, and 5 girls, because we got to keep both of our wrestlers that represented our own teams.
“My team won, so we get to keep the trophy for a year,” said the coach. Kincade’s Blue team won handily by a score of 52-25 over the Red team.
A few days after the event Kincade received yet another well-deserved honor when he was named by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette newspaper as the state’s Coach of the Year for boys’ wrestling.
“I couldn’t have won that award without being able to share it with my assistant coaches, Shannon Rhea, David Tuck, Robert Moore, Ashley Erskine, and Caleb Erskine,” he added.
Jason Arnold was also selected to the All-Prep team by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette after earlier being chosen as a member of the Class 5A All-State team.
Several other GHS wrestlers were named All-State as well, including Antonio Martinez, Hayden Allen, Garrett Haralson, Ty Moose, Colton Tuck, Jason Arnold, Sam Johnson, and Tyler Crossno.
GHS senior Colton Tuck, who finished as state runner-up in Class 5A at 145 pounds, also received the Dave Schultz award for excellence among high school wrestlers by the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, for his overall career as a student-athlete, both on the wrestling mat and in the classroom.