It was another busy week for Panther wrestling.
Having opened the regular season with contests at Swain and Robbinsville, Franklin kept rolling into the week before Thanksgiving, traveling to Cherokee, North Henderson and Towns County, Ga. With several strong matches including their football players’ debuts, the Panthers entered the holiday break on a high note.
“Towns was just the varsity boys. Friday night just gets your matches in – it really doesn’t count – it’s just for seeding, but they did real good,” said head coach Jimmy Barnett of the Indians’ King of the Mountain Tournament Nov. 21-22. “I think Justin Gonzalez went 2-1 Friday night at 126 [lbs.]. Branch [Browning] went 2-1 that night and beat a real good kid from Hayesville in overtime, and that boy actually ended up winning it. Devlin [Bailey] went 3-0 Friday night at heavyweight.”
At a 19-team tournament in Hiawassee, Franklin impressed in the preliminary round Friday night. The next day the Panthers returned to complete a solid showing.
“And then Saturday in the tournament, which really counts, I think Branch finished fifth,” said Barnett. “He wrestled real good; he’s still learning his body because he’s growing so tall he’s growing faster than his body will let him, but he’s wrestling well. And then Devlin lost in the finals to the Rabun County kid, but for the weekend, I think he went 6-1.”
Versus top competition from five states across the region, Browning and Bailey continued strong starts to the year. At Cherokee Nov. 25, Franklin’s girls reentered the fray.
“Cherokee was boys and girls. Girl-wise Jessenia Canjiano wrestled real well, and won her match,” said Barnett. “April Perez wrestled well at 120. ... Cassie Willoughby wrestled real good at 138. Everybody got about two matches over there; we mixed and matched and let them wrestle afterwards.”
“On the boys side we wrestled well, it was just that we didn’t get the wins we should have gotten – we still don’t have the strength that these other programs do. We’ve hired a strength and conditioning coach, John Lyon, to come in, and he’s helping with the team now. They don’t like his workouts at all, but we’re getting there. ... A couple of those matches could have gone either way, but I think by the end of the year we’ll be a whole lot better.”
With tough love from Lyon, the accomplished lead trainer of Franklin’s Movemore Fitness, Panther wrestlers are slowly but surely rounding into midseasaon form. At North Henderson Nov. 26, they received some welcome reinforcement when Franklin’s star sophomore rejoined his teammates from Panther football.
“On the varsity side we had Garrett [Young] at 215, which, I think he wrestled five matches in a total of three minutes, so he pinned everybody in the first period,” said Barnett of Young’s first official action since becoming Franklin’s first-ever freshman to compete at the state meet last year. “I thought he should have gotten Most Outstanding Wrestler, but there was a kid that got his 100th win at 190. ... A stinger that he got two weeks ago popped back up on him – he shot in on a kid and finished the takedown, but squalled in pain and stopped it for injury time. ... It took about a minute for the trainer to rub on it and get the sensation to start coming back, and he went right back out there and pinned the kid in about 30 seconds after that. I think that was his longest match at a minute and seven seconds.”
In pinning all five of his opponents, Young cruised to a tournament title just five days removed from Panther football’s final game. In the 190-lb. weight class, Young’s football/wrestling teammate also impressed.
“Weston Alberry came out of football season at 215. He’s dropping to 190 and we’re hoping to have him there by the end of the week, but I don’t know if he’s going to make it or not,” said Barnett. “It’s hard to cut that weight, especially at this time of year. ... He went undefeated and won the JV tournament. He’s like, ‘Well, I’m a junior wrestling JV,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, and you haven’t set foot on the mat besides one practice – I’m not throwing you into varsity.’ ... He didn’t get to compete last year because of some concussions he had, but he did real well on the football team.”
With Young and Alberry back on the mat, Franklin’s boys team is finally at full strength. Ahead of return trips to North Henderson and Cherokee later this week, Barnett believes multiple Panthers have shown the makings of strong seasons.
“I looked at the records the other night, and [Bailey] is sitting way over a .500 win percentage already,” he said. “Branch is sitting over .500, and Garrett’s at 1.000 right now because he’s won five matches.”
“This week will tell because we’ve got two good teams Thursday night in North Henderson and Enka, which, they’re in our region, and Mark Harris has an excellent program. ... [In the Osley B. Saunooke Tournament Cherokee Dec. 6] I know it’ll be us, Cherokee, probably Robbinsville and maybe Hayesville. ... There’ll be a lot of local teams, but I also think Coach [Todd] Odom will probably have reached out to a couple teams in Georgia because he’s got contacts all over this area, so I’m looking forward to the tournament.”