Two wrestlers will represent Franklin at the 5A state meet.
On the week of Feb. 9, the Panthers had a jam-packed schedule, traveling east to the Piedmont for the 5A regional meets. There both teams turned in strong performances, headlined by Carrie Holland and Garrett Young.
On Feb. 11, Franklin’s girls traveled to Parkwood High School in Monroe for the Women’s West Regional. After a 5-3 first-round loss to North Henderson’s Azlyn Villafranca in the 152-lb. weight class, Holland was relegated to the consolation bracket, just one loss away from elimination. There she pinned an Enka wrestler to advance to the consolation semis, where she turned in the Lady Panthers’ match of the day.
“It was a dogfight. It was close the first period, Carrie gets some back points in the second off an armbar and she goes up, and the girl chose bottom the third period,” said Barnett, referring to the coin flip at the beginning of each round in which the winning wrestler can choose their starting position. “She stopped Carrie’s [half Nelsons], which, Carrie is a great half person, but she’s just stopping them left and right. Carrie went to the armbar series and pinned her with the armbar, and I was like, ‘Holy crap.’ We beat the number three seed, so we’re on to state, and it’s very emotional after that match.”
In winning the consolation semis, Holland earned a top-four finish in her weight class, guaranteeing herself a berth to state. From there she advanced to the third place match, where she was even more impressive.
“Carrie said at the very beginning of the year, ‘I want to go to state. I don’t care where I place; I just want to go to state,” said Barnett. “Carrie’s very emotional after her pin; she comes over, she’s crying, we’re hugging, and I’m telling her, ‘Hey, you did it, but we’ve got one more match. We’ve got to win this next one because we don’t want to wrestle the number one seed going into state.’ She’s like, ‘Alright,’ so she gets focused ... and pins the girl in like 22 seconds.”
With a dominant win over a wrestler from North Davidson, Holland earned a third-place finish overall, punching her ticket to Greensboro this coming weekend. In addition to their senior talisman, several other Lady Panthers turned in strong days.
“We’re a young team. I mean, we did have three seniors, but out of the three seniors, Carrie and April were the only two that had any experience, and it was just a year,” said Barnett. “I’m looking at the rest of the team, and you go to Jessenia [Canjiano], who’s a freshman; she’s wrestled three years. Then at 114, this is Vayolet [Centeno]’s first year. Faith [Lefebvre] was a backup at 120, 126, and 132; she’s had three years’ experience. You skip to Alexis – Lexi – at 145, she’s a first-year wrestler, and she finally started getting around to learning what she needed to do.”
“We’ll lose Carrie at 152, April [Perez] at 120, Makayla [Pendergrass] at 132, but then you’ve got Vayolet, who wrestled last year as an eighth grader and finally found her stride at the end of her freshman year. ... So, it looks good for the girls coming up next year. I mean, we finished top-10 in region. I think the year before it was way down. ... We didn’t have anybody qualify for state last year, and we had three girls last year in the region tournament.”
With by far their largest-ever women’s regional contingent at seven wrestlers, the Lady Panthers’ future looks bright, even despite losing three seniors. Two days later Franklin’s boys traveled to North Davidson High School in Lexington, where their sophomore rising star impressed once again.
“He wrestled a total of two minutes and 26 seconds going into the finals. I said, ‘He’s wrestled at least one period in the last two days, so that’s better than he’s had all year,” said Barnett of Young. “I was like, ‘This could be a good match in the finals,’ and he’s back in the hallway warming up. Coach Brian [Browning] takes his headgear back to him, and Brian comes back to me. Me and [Coach Matt Bailey] had already talked to him, and Brian said, ‘He’s wired – he’s ready for the match.’ Brian said, ‘I’d hate to wrestle the kid – there’s sparks coming out of his ears and his eyes right now. He’s wired for sound – he’s going to rip this kid’s arms off and just beat him with them.”
Having dominated nearly every one of his opponents this year, Young kept rolling right into the regional tournament, making quick work of his first three foes to advance to the final. Versus a wrestler from South Point, he turned in the Panther men’s match of the day.
“He goes out there and he’s up 9-0 after the first period – got a takedown, a couple back points, and then turned him at the end of the period again. He was going to stick him, and the time ran out,” said Barnett. “Within a second [after the start of Period 2] he’s already got an escape, and he shoots back on a double leg and takes the boy from his feet, grabs his ankles and just drives through him, and it looked like a big oak tree falling.”
“So we go to the third period and it’s still 13-0 ... He did get an underhook on Garrett and was rushing him, but when he tried to throw Garrett, Garrett just fell on him and put him on his back. He rolled over and it ended the match at 16-0.”
In winning regionals without conceding a single point, Young punched his ticket to Greensboro as the 5A West’s #1 seed, just a year after becoming Franklin’s first-ever freshman to advance to state. In addition, Branch Browning and Devlin Bailey also impressed.
“Devlin had the Smoky Mountain kid who he lost to by points in the regular season, and then we wrestled him again postseason at Andrews and he pinned Devlin in the first period at Andrews. ... He had a hard time pinning him, but he did pin him, and he finally got his redemption on the kid. That kid’s a senior, and that did his season in.”
“[Branch] had a great year, and won 29 matches on the year. He was one win away from getting 30 wins, so he sits right now at like 55 matches won through his junior year. Next year it’s going to be hard to win 45 matches, but I think it’s very doable. It might be at State, and that might be the best place to get your 100th win.”
After regionals, Holland and Young prepared for the 5A State Tournament, planning a trip to the Greensboro Complex Feb. 18. The Press will report that tournament’s results in next week’s edition.