Another busy week is in the books for FHS wrestling.
After locking horns with Rosman, Hayesville, Brevard and Swain County the previous week, on May 31 the Panthers geared up for their biggest week of the year to date – two more meets with Western North Carolina foes, followed by the Mountain Six Conference Tournament in the FHS gym June 5. Following meets against East Henderson and Swain on Tuesday, Swain and Andrews on Thursday, and an all-afternoon affair in the conference tournament Saturday, Panther wrestlers could be forgiven for feeling a bit tired on Sunday.
“We lost to East earlier in the year, but we wrestled better than we had wrestled against them at the beginning of the year. We were a little flat, I thought, but even with that being said we were able to beat them 41-39. It was definitely closer than I would have liked, but when you’re able to not have your best day and still come out on top, that’s always a good thing. Against Swain, I wrestled a couple younger guys, and it was very similar to the first time we wrestled them.”
With a narrow win in Franklin’s official conference meet against the Eagles in hand, Barrington elected to give a few Panthers the night off against Swain in order to rest up for the conference meet later in the week. Chief among these was senior standout Braden Cody, who gave a Panther freshman some valuable experience against a quality Swain County team.
“I wrestled Miguel Diaz, and he got his first varsity match that night,” he said. “He did well. He lost, but he wrestled to a decision.”
After taking on East Henderson and Swain in the FHS gym June 1, on June 3 the Panthers readied for their third meet with Swain in seven days – this time in the Maroon Devils’ gym in Bryson City – as well as the Wildcats of Andrews High School (Swain edged out FHS 45-33 in Franklin May 27). Just two days ahead of the conference meet on Saturday, Barrington again made sure his wrestlers were well-rested for the Mountain Six tournament.
“I didn’t wrestle Isaac [Jennings], and I did not wrestle [Logan] Mack,” he said. “I gave [Jennings] the night off and gave Kyler Cochran his matches, and he did well. I think he won the Andrews match and lost the Swain Match. … With Swain again, we lost a few of those because I got a lot of my JV guys varsity matches. That’s kind of my tier for lettering guys, so I wanted to get some guys their varsity letters this year. I let Jonathan Gibson wrestle the 170, I let Miguel wrestle the 182, and Kyler [Cochran] wrestled the 195.”
While the influx of new faces prevented Franklin from picking up the win versus Swain, the Panthers did win all but one match against Andrews, taking that matchup 66-12 (the Wildcats earned six points from a win and six points from a Franklin forfeit). After arriving back in Franklin Thursday evening, the Panthers prepared to host the Mountain Six tournament in their home gym.
On a hot day outside Tom Raby Court, wrestlers from the five other Mountain Six schools (Brevard, Pisgah, Smoky Mountain, East Henderson, and Hendersonville) gathered for a massive six-team brawl to administer bragging rights for the last-ever MSC tournament before next year’s statewide realignment. In a marathon battle featuring constant matches on two separate mats from early afternoon well into the evening, FHS’s athletes acquitted themselves well.
“I left the gym feeling really good about how they performed as a team. It’s an individual tournament, but you do score for your team. We had guys that maybe got knocked out of the tournament earlier than they should have, and that would typically hurt your pretty bad, but we had guys that hung in the tournament longer than I expected them to. Everyone carried their weight on Saturday, which was a big win for us.”
In addition to veteran standouts like Cody and Branden Berger, FHS got solid performances from wrestlers up and down the roster Saturday. In front of a packed house with roughly 2-300 people in attendance, wrestlers up and down the roster made an impression in the conference championship.
“Wyatt [Browning] has been wrestling well, and he’s a freshman, so this was his first tournament,” he said. “For him to go out there and win his semifinal matchup pretty decisively was a big deal. … Joseph Spates at 113 pounds had his first varsity win that wasn’t by forfeit, and to do it against Pisgah in a conference tournament like that is a pretty special thing. … Isaac Jennings had probably my favorite match of the day in his finals match. The kid he beat had beat him 10-3 over at Pisgah, and it wasn’t really even a close match. … He’s wrestling really well, and he’s got a good chance of advancing past Regionals.”
With pleasant surprises from Browning, Spates, Jennings and others and the usual dominating performances by Berger and Cody, the Panthers’ success showed up in the final tally, taking second place with 160 team points behind conference powerhouse Pisgah’s 229.5. Eleven Panthers finished in the top four in their weight classes, including three – Cody, Jennings, and Berger – who earned Mountain Six Conference titles outright. Barrington was named the conference’s Coach of the Year by his Mountain Six counterparts, while Berger, after pinning both his semifinals and finals opponents in just a few seconds apiece, was named its Most Outstanding Wrestler. While performing well in the conference tournament on their home floor was no doubt a big accomplishment for the Panthers, the day was even more meaningful for two Panther seniors in particular.
“Aiden [Carpenter] ships out on the 14th, and Berger doesn’t ship out until the 21st, but we’re not going to wrestle a kid at Regionals that would probably advance to State and knock somebody else out,” said Barrington of the two seniors and close friends, who will depart for National Guard basic training this month. “With it being single-elimination, he could knock someone out in the first round that might have had a chance to win a different match, so we decided several months ago that if he was going to be gone for the state tournament that Regionals needed to be off the table.”
While the two seniors’ departure comes at an inopportune time for the regional tournament at Pisgah June 15, the timing is especially disappointing for Berger, who many observers thought could contend for a state title this year after narrowly missing out on a Top-6 finish a year ago. After winning Most Outstanding Wrestler in his final meet in an FHS uniform, Berger said he will now turn his attention toward a higher calling.
“I feel pretty good. It’s been a long time coming – it’s overwhelming,” he said. “I wanted to do something better for myself and other people.”