It’s been a busy few weeks for Panther wrestling.
With three meets under their belts in just the season’s first seven days, Franklin hit the road again leading up to Thanksgiving, traveling to Hiwassee Dam Nov. 22-23 and to conference rival North Henderson Nov. 27. With strong weeks from wrestlers up and down the roster, a young Panther team continued to gain valuable experience.
“At Hiwassee, Garrett Young finished first – he pinned everybody in the first period,” said first-year head coach Jimmy Barnett of the King of the Mountain tournament. “Devlin Bailey finished fifth, Ivan Martinez was sixth, Luke Schick was eighth, Tucker McHan and Branch Browning were 10th, and Conner Pittman was 11th. As a team we finished eighth out of 15, so right in the middle. … We were very young – Ivan is the oldest in that group, and he’s a junior.”
In placing eighth with just seven wrestlers including four freshmen, Franklin turned in a strong weekend at Hiwassee Dam. A few days later, they traveled to Hendersonville for the North Knight Invitational.
“This past week we were at North, and it was a little bit harder and better competition, I think,” said Barnett. “Garrett Young finished second over there; he got beat a by a good wrestler from Pisgah in the final 6-2. Cooper Contino came back out and finished sixth, and then Avery Carpenter finished seventh. So, they’re the three that really stood out in their pools and made it into the championship rounds.”
In a non-traditional format wherein wrestlers advanced from initial pools of four, Young, Contino and Carpenter impressed versus tough competition. On the girls side, an inexperienced Panther team continues to improve.
“The girls wrestled this week, and all the girls that participated picked up a win,” said Barnett. “Abigail Hill picked up a pin in her first round; she was the only wrestler to advance to the round of eight. The other girls lost their first rounds but they all won their second match, so they all made it to the consolation quarters and got put out. [That was] Abigail Hill, Ashley Hill, April Perez, Lexy McLennan and Carrie Holland.”
In taking the reigns this offseason with precious few returning wrestlers, Barnett has been tasked with rebuilding the program from the ground up. While the men’s team still has a way to go in filling out its roster, both squads should have a strong foundation for years to come.
“We got more participation than I thought we would this year, especially from the girls. The last couple years it’s been three or four girls and that’s it, and we’ve got seven girls right now, so I’m very happy with that,” said Barnett. “The boys are still missing a lot of that middle weight, from 132 to 150. We’re still trying to get that, and that’s been a pain for me in middle school for years. Seems like you get a lot of light guys and a lot of mid-to-heavy guys, but right in the light/middles is where you have problems.”
Between inexperience and lack of middleweight wrestlers, Franklin will be hard-pressed to win many dual team matches this year. In a difficult Mountain Seven Conference, the Panthers are likely a year or two away from competing for titles.
“Right now it looks like Franklin and Tuscola are the two at the bottom. I know we’re both growing our teams, but they’re not up to par Pisgah, and West is really good,” said Barnett. “Smoky’s got a good team this year – from what we saw over at the tournament, they looked good, fundamentally sound and coached. … North looked like they were down a little bit this year. We haven’t seen [North in] a dual team yet, but as far as the individuals look I think we can compete. It’s just that we’re so young and we’re giving up the forfeits, so I think we’ll be fine.”
In their official conference matches with West and Pisgah before Thanksgiving, Franklin fell to two regional 3A powers. The Panthers continued their Mountain Seven schedule with three meets in seven days from Dec. 7-14, before hosting their first home meet of the season versus Rabun County and Brevard Dec. 17.
“We’ll see a lot of the schools we saw this week at North, but there’ll be some different ones,” said Barnett of East Henderson’s War Eagle Invitational tournament Dec. 7. “[Dec. 10] will be the dual conference match [with East Henderson], then Friday and Saturday we will be at West for the Falcon Frenzy. I know there’s like 26 teams that are gonna be there with JV and girls, so it should be a great turnout.”