Panthers recover from ominous start to home tri-match
Andy Scheidler
sports@thefranklinpress.com
The first home wrestling event of the season ended on a positive note after getting off to a rocky start.
Franklin hosted Fannin County (Georgia) and Swain County on Tuesday. The Panthers took on Fannin County first, and the second match provided excitement followed by an abrupt ending.
FHS and Fannin County started with the 220-pound weight class, which Fannin County won by pin. That brought up the heavyweights (who can weigh up to 285 pounds).
Fannin County’s heavyweight is junior Mason Bundy. He’s listed on MaxPreps as 6-foot-6 and 276 pounds. Sporting a full beard, combined with his size and intimidating presence, Bundy could easily be mistaken for someone much older than a teenager.
Franklin sophomore Cameron Cody had the task of wrestling Bundy, and he got off to a tremendous start with a couple takedowns and back points from a near pin.
But when the second period ended, Cody stood up and made a quick kicking motion toward his opponent. He was disqualified, giving Fannin County five points and causing a ripple effect on the Panthers.
FHS coach Kyle Barrington said the air got sucked out of the gym when the incident occurred.
“You could see it trickle down the line after that,” Barrington said. “We kind of lost our momentum there. Fannin County, they’re good. But we should have been able to wrestle them closer than that.”
Fannin County reeled off five straight victories, making the score 41-0, before Zack Gibson got the Panthers on the board with a pin at 138.
The visitors scored five straight pins to lead 71-6, before Branden Berger ended the match at 195 with a first-period pin.
Fannin County wrestled Swain, and then the Panthers took on the Maroon Devils.
FHS won it 40-32.
Giovann Huayamave (120 pounds) and Josh Barrs (132) recorded pins in the match.
Gibson won by points via a major decision to go 2-0 on the night.
“Zack’s wrestling really good right now,” Barrington said. “He won his weight class at the Swain tournament and performed pretty well at Enka considering he got off to a slow start.”
Ben Waldroop, Braden Cody, Berger and Seth Price all won via forfeits against Swain.
Cameron Cody didn’t wrestle against the Maroon Devils and could miss more time. Barrington said he’s suspending the sophomore until he atones for his mistake.
“That’s a big problem, you can’t do that,” Barrington said.
The win over Swain was Franklin’s first team victory this season. After what transpired earlier, Barrington was happy to see the Panthers respond in a positive fashion.
“We were able to come back from that,” he said. “But, like I said, that’s a big gut punch at the beginning of the night to have to overcome. I was proud that they were able to come out of it and take away some positives from the night.”
The Panthers also competed Nov. 27 at Enka in the Jet Invitational.
Berger took second at 195. He got a pin in his first match, won 4-1 in the semifinals, before suffering an 11-9 loss to a wrestler from Robbinsville in the finals.
Cameron Cody took third in the heavyweight division. He lost his first match before winning three straight by pins.
Braden Cody took fourth, while Gibson placed fifth.
Barrington said the Panthers are getting tired toward the end of their matches. They’re also making mental errors that he wants them to clean up.
“I saw some stuff to build on,” he said. “It’s a long season. There’s still a lot to work on.”
FHS will travel to East Henderson on Saturday for a team tournament. The Panthers will return to Henderson County on Tuesday, competing in a tri-match with Hendersonville and Madison.
Following next week’s match, the Panthers will have a couple weeks without any matches. That will be an ideal time to focus on conditioning.
“We’ll get in there and really work the conditioning aspect and get them where they need to be,” Barrington said.
The first-year coach wants the Panthers to take moves they work on in practice and execute them in matches.
“We get late in a match and we start doing things that aren’t characteristic of what we go over, what we work on and what we know is high percentage. We tend to forget some of that. Mainly, it’s just getting over some errors we’re making with decision making,” Barrington said.
“We’re getting there. It’s a work in progress. It takes time.”