For the past two years, Fort Mill High School senior wrestler Lincoln Greene has been chasing history. That chase is finally over.
Greene broke the Fort Mill wrestling program’s record for most career wins picking up win number 175 over Nation Ford’s Zach Nieves on Tuesday, Jan. 20 at Catawba Ridge High School as part of a tri-match with the Copperheads. Greene beat Nieves with a 17-0 tech fall for win No. 175 to surpass the school record of 174 wins.
The school record had belonged to now Fort Mill High assistant coach AJ Leitten for the past nine years. Leitten, a former NC State wrestler and three-time state champion wrestler for Fort Mill, has helped Greene since becoming part of the Jackets coaching staff. Leitten’s record of 174 wins was established in 2017.
“All the seniors now started wrestling their eighth-grade year,” Leitten said. “And it got to the point we had to start kicking them out of the (wrestling room), because they were constantly in there. They kept showing up. I started trending towards those guys and connected with them right away.
“He started picking up things really fast. I started implementing everything I did in high school and he picked it up and it made it easy for me to coach him, because I was like what would I do in this situation.”
The path between the two wrestlers started years ago when Leitten was first helping with the Fort Mill program.
“I work with him every single day,” Greene said. “He is basically like my older brother. I would go in for training sessions with him 1-on-1 just to get better. Everything he did in high school I’ve done that I know of. He turned me into a little version of him. I wouldn’t be anywhere near of where I am now without AJ. He is the reason I am where I am at.”
Leitten started working with Greene when he was just a middle school wrestler in the eighth grade. From there, the two formed a bond that Greene describes as being like brothers.
“When I started wrestling, my goal was just to be a four-time state champion,” Greene said. “I came short of those goals, so I wanted to be a three-time state duals champion and a four-time duals state champion. We are completing those goals now. When I hit 100 wins, I saw that AJ had the record with 174 and I thought if I won 40 matches a year, which I had been doing I could break that.”
Leitten said that he is surprised at how fast Greene was able to understand the sport, but knew the growing pains would be there.
“He picked it up really fast and the gap of him starting in eighth grade hit him, when he started competing in national tournaments and it was a tough phase there,” Leitten said. “He had only been wrestling a couple years, but he was gaining traction so fast. He had to get his butt beat and take some losses to learn how to get better at wrestling. Now he is full on taking it and going with it.”
At the start of his senior season, Greene put that down as one of his goals in getting the record.
“I knew to break it. I was going to have to work my butt off anyways, and hopefully that comes with a state championship,” Greene said.
One thing that has helped Greene is wrestlers wrestle more matches these days than even 10 years ago. Leitten wrestled a total of 180-career matches in four years. Greene has 201-career matches thus far and still has possibly 20 more left before the season is over.
Leitten said he is happy for Greene eclipsing his record.
“The record was made for someone to go break it and there isn’t a better kid out there to go and do it,” he said. “And it is a pretty proud moment for me as well.”
As Greene approached the record, he also admitted that he became more cautious because with every match there’s always a chance of an injury occurring.
“That’s besides the record,” he said. “I don’t want to get hurt because I know my team needs me. I would much rather be a four-time duals state champion than break the record. I think breaking the record would have come in time with each match.”
Greene still has his eye on being an individual state champion, but is more focused currently on leading the Jackets to a fourth consecutive state title.
Greene’s personality mimics that of Leitten’s personality. Even to the point of what they both like about wrestling.
“I love beating people up,” Greene said. “Seriously. When I get on the mat, you kind of have to pave your own way. My coaches took it to me every single day in the room. I trained with AJ and you kind of can control what happens.”
Fort Mill head wrestling coach Adam Marullo said Greene has earned his success.
“Lincoln is a special kid,” Marullo said. “I am very proud of him and the hard work he puts in. He is what we want as a representative. He does everything right on and off the mat. The guy happiest for him is the guy’s record he is breaking.”
Greene said he doesn’t plan on wrestling in college and wants to attend the University of South Carolina and looks to major in business.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
