High School Extra: Notebook, Forrest Rhyne joins wrestling team
Waynesboro had a spot to fill on its wrestling team.
The Indians were in need of a 220-pounder, and where better to look than the football team? Waynesboro first-year coach Dan Craig convinced the area's top linebacker, Forrest Rhyne, to come out for the team. He came to his first-ever wrestling practice on Monday and won his first-ever wrestling match Wednesday.
"I had no idea I was even gonna wrestle (Wednesday)," Rhyne said. "I thought I was just gonna weigh in and see if we could get a bump. But 45 minutes before the match, Mr. Craig told me I was in."
Rhyne, a junior, played basketball for Waynesboro as a freshman, but didn't come out last year in order to focus solely on football.
"I thought wrestling could really help me out with football as well, with tackling, footwork and speed and conditioning," Rhyne said.
He won a 13-9 decision against Boiling Springs, and most of the Bubblers' points were scored because Rhyne was called for having his hands locked four times.
"He's learning real quick," Craig said. "We still gotta teach him some of the rules, but he's improving real fast. I expect that in a couple of weeks, he could be a dominating force."
TO THE LINE: The Chambersburg boys basketball team had a stated goal of shooting 80 percent from the free throw line this season.
The Trojans have a ways to go to achieve that distinction -- through five games they are hitting at a 63.3 percent clip on foul shots. In their best performance, against Central Dauphin last week, Chambersburg sank 22 of 30 (73.3%), including 14 of 16 in the fourth quarter.
The good thing is that the Trojans are getting to the line frequently. In five games, they have shot 109 free throws, or 21.3 per game. That has helped the offense, which has lost its shooting touch at times.
COUNTDOWN TO 1,000: A pair of area juniors joined the 900-point club this week.
Greencastle-Antrim's Jenay Faulkner could soon become just the fourth Blue Devil in the girls' program history to score 1,000 points. She currently sits at 916 points.
Fannett-Metal's Mikell McGee also put himself even closer to the milestone with a huge game on Wednesday. He scored 42 points against Chestnut Ridge, meaning he now needs just 88 points to hit the 1,000-point milestone.
BIG DROP: Chambersburg swimmer Waylon Curtis did some serious practicing over the course of a week.
In the Trojans' opening meet of the season on Dec. 8 against Red land, Curtis swam swam in the 400 freestyle for the first time competitively. The following week, Dec. 15 against State College, Curtis swam the event again. This he placed a surprising third by knocking off 30 seconds from his previous time, finishing in 5:13.38.
Of course, that was nearly a full minute behind the winner, Trojan freshman Jacob Greenwood (4:17.57), who has the fastest time ever in that event for Chambersburg.