A promising season is nearing its end for Panther wrestling.
On Jan. 25, the team traveled to West Henderson for the Mountain Seven Conference Tournament. With four podium finishes including three from the girls, a young Franklin squad got its first taste of postseason action.
“The only conference champion we had for boys or girls was Carrie Holland at 152,” said first-year head coach Jimmy Barnett. “She’s a first-year-wrestler, a junior, a standout volleyball player. She came out to give it a try and has done well. She pinned both girls … she’s wrestled well this year.”
With a 12-9 overall record, Holland has burst onto the scene this year, pinning North Henderson’s Fatima Perez and Pisgah’s Rhylei Ladet for a Mountain Seven title. In the lighter weight classes, Franklin also impressed against tough competition.
“Ashley [Hill] and April [Perez] were at 114 and 120, and Ashley did well as a first-year wrestler from the Early College. She’s a junior and went 0-2, but she wrestled well,” said Barnett. “Those littler weight classes, for some reason they are filled – I mean they are just stacked. Ashley was up in one match, and ended up getting pinned. She had some injuries with her shoulder this year and fought through it, and she did well. … April, being a sophomore, a first-year wrestler also and a soccer standout star came out and gave it a try. She went 0-2 as well, but wrestled good.”
Competing in larger tournament brackets than Holland, Hill and Perez didn’t enjoy the same success, but did end promising first seasons on a strong note. In the middle weight classes, Franklin’s girls turned in some gutsy performances.
“Cassie [Willoughby] filled in at 145, a first-year wrestler also as a sophomore,” said Barnett. “She wrestled well, but her knee had been bothering her, and after her first match it looked bad. I told her, ‘You know, it’s not a bad thing just to call it day,’ and she said, ‘No, I’m not giving up – I’m going to try anyway.’ She went out there, gave it everything she had, got beat and placed third.
“And then Malaina [Alberry] at 132, senior, been fighting a knee problem for half the year. … She wrestled the first match, got a pin and got into the finals. She had been using a TENS [transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation] unit on it all day plus ice. We got to the finals and I said, ‘Are you going to wrestle?’ I already knew in my mind no, we’re not going to wrestle, but I wanted to see where her mind was. She said, ‘Coach, I can’t bend my knee,’ and I said, ‘Yeah, we’re done for the day. Just go dress out, we’ll take second place and be done,’ and that’s what we did.”
Despite nagging knee injuries, Willoughby and Alberry earned podium finishes, turning in two of the tournament’s most impressive results. By way of their top-two finishes in the conference, Holland and Alberry also qualified for the 3A West Women’s Regional at North Henderson Feb. 8. On the boys side, a young Panther team battled several difficult veteran foes.
“Conner [Pittman] was 0-2, done for the day. He’s a freshman filling in, and it’s hard to put a freshman in the starting lineup in varsity,” said Barnett. “He wrestled a senior [Smoky Mountain’s Davey McCoy] right from the get-go, which, I voted for him for Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. … Branch [Browning] had Kane Bryson, who ended up being the Most Outstanding Wrestler in the conference for the year, first off and got pinned. He wrestled hard and did real well. … He lost his next match, but he did end up fourth place.”
In candidates for Most Outstanding Wrestler at 120 and 126 respectively, Pittman and Browning faced the toughest first-round draws possible. At the heavier weights, three more young Panthers faced similar tests.
“Luke [Schick] wrestled JP Chapman in the first round and got beat – that’s the boy from Pisgah who was in the finals who later got beat by Kavan Wilson from Smoky,” said Barnett of the 157-lb weight class. “Then he had Ilia [Ciudinov] from North, which he finished third. Preston [Douglas] ended up fourth in the tournament, and I think he’s got a good shot of getting into Regions. I’m not sure, but I think he should be able to get in.”
“Devlin [Bailey] wrestled Smoky’s heavyweight first, who ended up winning the tournament, and turned around and had to wrestle North’s heavyweight and got beat again. He wrestled well, and there’s another freshman starting in the lineup wrestling mostly juniors and seniors at heavyweight who are outweighing him by 30-40 pounds.”
After falling to Pisgah’s 165 conference finalist Iker Ramirez, Douglas faced Smoky’s Colton McFalls in the consolation round, pinning the junior in the last second of Round 2. While Douglas and Bailey fell short of the conference’s automatic berths, their overall records (13-12 and 20-18, respectively) could earn them at-large bids to the 3A West Men’s Regional at Pisgah Feb. 14-15. Hill stands a similar chance on the girls side at 10-10. At 215 however, Franklin’s freshman boys rising star faces no such uncertainty.
“Garrett [Young] got to the finals against Landon Pope from Pisgah, who’s a junior and a two-time state place-winner. We wrestled him early in the year and did not do real well,” said Barnett. “We had prepared for that, and it was a totally different outcome – Garrett outwrestled him for five-and-a-half minutes. … We talked later on after we got back to Franklin, and Garrett thinks like a coach – “That was just a trial run, coach. We’ve got him in Regions three weeks away, and that’s when it really counts.’”
Having earned the match’s first three points for a takedown in the first period, Young looked well on the way to defeating his rival, until Pope returned the favor late in the third to win 5-4. But while Pope would spend the next week(s) preoccupied with Pisgah’s dual team playoffs, the 31-4 freshman began preparing for Regionals.
“We’ve got two and a half more weeks before regions, and I’ll find out that week of the region tournament who makes it and who don’t,” said Barnett. “It’s a light week – we took Monday and Tuesday off. We’ll practice Wednesday, Thursday, Friday just for some cardio and to review stuff that we need to work on, and then next week we’ll go back to our regular time, which is 5-7:30. That way I can get my extras that work jobs and go to college to work out with Garrett and Devlin and Preston, give them some hard competition. My volunteer girls coach, Jasmin Valencia, that gives her time to get off work, get in there and roll around with Carrie and Malaina.”