LHS senior Blake Greenfield, right, tries for an escape against Cody Shavlik of Derby in the consolation semifinals of the Class 6A state tournament. Greenfield placed fifth at 140 pounds on Saturday in Wichita.

Wichita ? Although none of them wound up where they wanted to, three members of the Lawrence High wrestling team decided to exit Saturday’s Class 6A state tournament fighting like dogs.

Must have been the clippers.

Friday night, after LHS senior Blake Greenfield, junior Dustin Walthall and freshman Reece Wright-Conklin each picked up enough victories to advance to Saturday’s second day of the state tourney, the three found themselves back at the hotel, looking for something to pass the time. Somehow, the idea to shave their heads came to mind.

“A lot of teams do something,” Walthall said. “Sometimes they bleach their hair or come out with mohawks. And we wanted to do something, too. Something to show that we were ready to make a statement.”

Out came the clippers and off went the hair. For Walthall and Wright-Conklin, who wear their hair on the short side to begin with, the impromptu trim was no big deal. For Greenfield, who had a full head of hair until Friday night, the decision to shed the locks was not as easy. After spending a few minutes getting himself psyched up — much in the same way he does before a match — Greenfield handed the shears over to his teammates and let them go to town.

There was only one problem.

“About halfway through I said, ‘These are the same clippers I use to shave my dog,'” Walthall said. “Blake wanted us to stop after that. He didn’t want any part of that. But once you go halfway, you can’t stop.”

Such was the mantra for all three wrestlers on Saturday, as each walked away with a fifth-place medal and a victory in the final match of his season.

“I think that just shows what kind of caliber of athletes and people we have here,” Walthall said. “We bounce back.”

Greenfield (140 pounds) and Walthall (171) probably had the toughest tasks in that department. Each lost in the semifinals of their bracket on Friday and fell one round shy of reaching the state title match. Their efforts guaranteed them at least a sixth-place finish on Saturday, but each had more on his mind than losing two and limping away.

“They already did the hard part” LHS coach Patrick Naughton said. “They got to the medal rounds. For a lot of guys, the Saturday morning session is all about looking for excuses to stop wrestling because you’re mad about your draw.”

The LHS guys didn’t do that.

“I expected more from myself,” said Wright-Conklin, who lost in the quarterfinals Friday, but won three of his four matches on Saturday.

“But just going out there and finishing strong was important. Most freshmen don’t get to where I got and I’m still happy with what I accomplished.”

Wright-Conklin became just the second freshman in city history to earn a medal at state. His fifth-place match consisted of the same things that made him one of the biggest stories of the 2009 season — strength, smarts, grit and grace.

After failing to score in the first period of his final match, Wright-Conklin jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the second period. A quick reversal to open the third pushed the lead to 8-0 and from there he used his brute strength to ride out his opponent en route to an 11-4 victory.

Moments later, Walthall was nearly just as dominant, as he built a 5-1 lead after two periods and cruised to a 10-5 victory.

Fittingly, Greenfield’s fifth-place match proved to be the toughest, as he, too, jumped out to an early lead (2-0) but had to fight for everything after that. He scored the winning points on a reversal with 1:10 remaining in the match and held on for the 5-4 victory.

“You can’t lose your last one,” said Greenfield, who qualified for state as a sophomore and took fourth as a junior. “It feels great to place here during my last year. The higher the better.”

Senior Jake Pfannenstiel (145) was the only other LHS wrestler in action on Saturday, but he fell short of the medal rounds after losing his second match of the day, 11-2, to Shawnee Mission Northwest’s Will Greenhaw.

That loss likely ranked second in terms of disappointment for city wrestlers on Saturday. Free State High senior Jack Caywood (152) took the cake in that department.

After winning his first match of the day, 12-6, Caywood lost to Derby’s Zach Kuipers, 5-4, when Kuipers scored a two-point takedown with two seconds remaining in the match to turn a 4-3 Caywood lead into a heartbreaking defeat.

“It’s a little depressing,” Caywood said. “I was ahead and I lost it. That was one of the best matches I’ve ever wrestled, too. I guess it’s satisfying to know that I went out wrestling well but it’s kind of hard to stomach.”

Free State juniors Spencer Chestnut (189) and Ammon Austin (285) also fell short of the medal rounds Saturday, with Chestnut finishing the day 1-1 and Austin losing by pin in the same round as Caywood.

“We wrestled well, we just got beat,” FSHS coach Paul Lappin said. “I’m proud of their effort, I’m just hurting for Jack. There’s not a kid in the world who I’d like to see be successful as much as him. As for our juniors, by winning a couple of matches down here that shows they can compete at this level and hopefully they’ll come back even stronger next season.”