Panther wrestling has its first-ever state champion.
After advancing out of the 5A West Regionals the previous week, on Feb. 18 Garrett Young and Carrie Holland traveled to Greensboro, where they took part in the 5A State Championships. There Young bested all comers in the 215-lb. weight class, forever etching his name in Franklin history.
“His first round, he pinned the kid in like a minute-20,” said head coach Jimmy Barnett of Young’s first match in the Greensboro Complex. “That kid was from Havelock, and he ended up finishing fourth. Garrett got a good double-leg, took him down, and he stacked the kid and pinned him.”
Having won all four matches at regionals without conceding a point, Young kept rolling into the state quarterfinals, blanking Havelock’s Zy’aire Pridgen 7-0. From there he advanced to the semis, where he met South Point’s Aiden Sullivan.
“His semifinal match he got a takedown, was working an inside cradle on the kid, but he had his head outside the kid’s ribs,” said Barnett. “I was screaming, ‘Head in the hole,’ which, you put your head on the hip and it’s like a bow and arrow – it forces the head to the knee easier. When he did that, he got the cradle. He actually heard me, looked at me, and I pointed at my hip. He put his head there, cradled it, popped him over and pinned him.”
With a semifinal win Friday night, Young advanced to the State Championship match, returning to the Greensboro Complex the next morning. There he met Hunt High School’s Judah Harris, one of his toughest foes of the season.
“The other guy is on the National Junior Judo Team, and he just got back from Bulgaria like two weeks ago from competing overseas. So, he’s been on the big stage before, and it showed,” said Barnett. “But at the same time, he made some mental mistakes that cost him the match. We start out the match with an ankle pick, going up 3-0. The kid really didn’t do anything on bottom and we drove out of bounds... so we got a restart in the middle of the mat.”
“He hit a Granby roll, Garrett followed, he hit another Granby roll, Garrett followed, but was kind of slow getting back there. So, we gave him one instead of two, and it’s 3-1, and we’re back on our feet with probably about a minute and 20 seconds left in the first period.”
After an eventful first 40 seconds, the next 80 seconds saw the match settle down, save a brief injury stoppage for a bloody nose. From there the match moved into Period 2, where Young came out firing.
“We win the coin toss, he looks at me, and I was like, ‘I kind of really want to see what that guy wants to do,” said Barnett of the option to defer, in which wrestlers can save their choice of position for Period 3. “But me and Garrett had talked, and he was like, ‘If I’ve got a choice, I want to go bottom.’ I was like, ‘Take it,’ so he took bottom, and he got a quick escape. I mean, it was right at one second, and we’re back on our feet again up 4-1.”
Much like in Period 1, Young extended his lead early and defended it for two minutes, maintaining his three-point advantage to Period 3. There he was forced to overcome an early setback.
“It’s [Harris’] choice in the third period and he looks at his coaches in the corner, and he has no choice besides to go down,” said Barnett. “He goes down and hits a Grandy roll right off the get-go, and gets behind Garrett. Garrett was slow to get to him, so it’s 4-3. ... He just keeps chopping Garrett, and Garrett gets called for stalling with like 45 seconds left on bottom. It’s just a warning, he’s got another one to give, but if he gives another one that ties it up.”
With a one-point lead, Young wrestled defensively in Period 3, earning a citation from the referee for inaction. From there he was forced to pick up the pace.
“Garrett comes up to his feet and takes two steps, and they go out of bounds,” said Barnett. “When they go out of bounds I look at Garrett, and ... I was like, ‘You don’t have to get up, you’ve just got to move – don’t stay still, just stay busy. Pop your hands, act like you’re coming up, get back to your knees, do some sit-out turn-ins, just stay busy.”
“So Garrett hits a sit-out turn-in, and I’m pretty sure he went about 75% on that sit-out turn-in, because the first one he hit was 100%, and he got out real easy. This time the kid almost let him out, and Garrett slowed down so he could stay on bottom because he didn’t want to get back to his feet. So, it was very smart on Garrett’s part, how he wrestled.”
Despite a late surge from Harris, Young maintained his position, winning the match 4-3 to secure a state title. From there, Young seemed to need more time to take it all in.
“After it was over with, I really don’t think it hit him until probably Sunday morning when he woke up,” said Barnett. “He came off the mat, and we had already talked about the celebration and what we were going to do if he won. ... but when he got to us, he just fell to his knees.”
“He told me it was like a dream. He couldn’t believe that it’d happened, that we’d won state. I said, ‘We didn’t – you did. Coach Matt [Bailey] was like, ‘Yeah, we’re just sitting in a corner. We’re just along for the ride, man; we’re just here to help you do it. We didn’t do nothing; you wrestled the six minutes and did exactly what we told you to do.’ He wrestled a very smart tournament.”
As only a sophomore, Young will remain in state title contention for years to come, with the chance to end his career as a three-time champ. On the girls’ side, Franklin’s other state qualifier ended a stellar career.
“Thursday, Carrie got the number-two seed from the East,” said Barnett of Dixon’s Taliana Barrera. “Carrie wrestled well against her; it was a close match. She got caught, the girl pinned her, so we had to wrestle back that night after another round of championships.”
“So Carrie wrestled back, goes out there and pins the girl pretty quick. I was like, ‘Man, that’s good – good shot, ran a bar, pinned the girl. I was like, ‘Good, you’re in second day; you’re in the last day of the states for girls.”
After a first-round loss to Barrera, Holland was relegated to the consolation bracket, defeating Croatan’s Casey Dixon to stave off elimination. From there she returned the next morning for the consolation semifinals.
“She grabbed Carrie’s arm on a two-on-one and just pulled Carrie straight to the mat with it, and Carrie just could not get off the bottom and got caught on her back.,” said Barnett of Genesis Hall of the Simon G. Atkins Academic and Technology School. “Well, it went to the second period, and we got choice and we took top, and Carrie just couldn’t hold her down.
“This girl’s speed was unreal and Carrie just couldn’t step up to that speed. She got a reversal right off the get-go, got on top of Carrie and pinned her.”
With her second loss, Holland was eliminated from the tournament, bringing her illustrious career to an end. Upon returning home, Barnett wished to thank his assistants, including Brian Browning, Matt Bailey, Joel Schick and several unpaid volunteers, as well as a familiar face who will join the staff next season.
“We’d already talked when [Holland] told me she was going to Southwestern [Community College], and I said, ‘Would you like to help next year?’” said Barnett. “She said, ‘No doubt. I want to come in and work.’ She said, ‘I’ve loved this sport ever since I joined it two years ago,’ and she said, ‘I don’t want to quit.’ ... So, she’s excited about the next journey in her wrestling career.”