Notre Dame's Luke Mullin wrestles in a Class A-AA 126-weight bout against CAK's Brandon Jarvis in Saturday action at the TSSAA State Wrestling championships being held at the Williamson Ag Exposition Park in franklin, Tenn. Mullin is going for his third state championship.
photo by Dennis Norwood
FRANKLIN, Tenn. – It’s turned into a three-team race for top honors in the Class A-AA State Wrestling Tournament.
Alcoa currently has first place with 131 points, but defending champ Pigeon Forge is a close second with 128.5 and State Duals champ Red Bank is in third at 126.5.
Greeneville and Hixson are in fourth and fifth places with 90 and 78.5 points, respectively.
Friday was a long day and teams scored lots of points. It’s all about the medal rounds on Saturday as the consolation semis will be followed by the consolation finals for third and fifth places in the morning session with the championship finals set for 5 p.m. (CST).
It’s a nerve-wracking event to say the least, especially when you’re a coach and wanting your kids to all reach their potential on the final weekend of the season. And for a spacious facility like the Williamson County Agricultural Exposition Park, there’s no better place to shine.
Red Bank coach Shane Turner came up here this weekend with high hopes for his team, just hoping they could equal what they did two weeks ago and somehow take home another championship plaque.
“I’m not sure we can catch them, but it’s been an all-out day for us,” he said following the final consolation match of the evening for the Lions.
“We lost a few we shouldn’t have lost and we let a few big ones get by, but I just hope we can wrestle to our capability tomorrow. We’ve improved from last year, but we didn’t come up here to finish second. We still have a shot, even though we didn’t wrestle very well today,” Turner added.
Alcoa coach Brian Gossett knows just how Turner feels. He’s had individual champions in the past, but never a team title with a second to Hixson two years ago as close as the Tornadoes have ever come.
“We still have another day of competition, but it looks like a three-team race right now,” the big, bearded fellow suggested while watching late matches and talking with fellow coaches.
“Right now, I don’t know who will be there at the end as there’s a lot more wrestling before it’s over. I don’t want to feel too good at this point because I’ve left here on Friday night before with the lead and lost on the final day.
“Pigeon Forge is the defending champ and the pace setter, but we’ll do our best tomorrow and see what happens,” Gossett concluded.
Hixson coach Garrick Hall, who is still looking for his first individual champ, was pretty upbeat after Bubba Palacio had won at 285 in the final consolation match of the evening.
“We’ve got five of nine in the medals with two in the finals, so that’s not too bad for what we’ve been through this year. I just want to see our guys do as well as possible as I’m not concerned with team scores. Being in fifth place isn’t bad considering all the adversity we’ve had,” he said while the rest of the Hixson contingent waited impatiently for him.
While Red Bank and Hixson are among the top five, Notre Dame is eighth with 48.5 while Signal Mountain is ninth with 46.
Other Chattanooga teams include Central in 12th with 35, Boyd-Buchanan 17th with 19, East Ridge 18th with 17, Chattanooga Christian 28th with 7, Tyner 34th with three and Howard 36th with one point.
Alcoa has five in the finals while Pigeon Forge and Red Bank both have four each. Hixson has two while Notre Dame, Central and Signal Mountain all have one apiece.
Red Bank’s four include Blake Reichel at 113, who was runner-up at 106 last year, Gabe McDuffie at 145, Devin Crawl at 195 who was the champ at 182 in 2015, and heavyweight Anthony Ottinger.
Hixson’s two include Landon Goforth at 145 and Dylan Bargerstock at 182. Goforth is still unbeaten and will face McDuffie in a rematch from last week’s Region 2 final where Goforth won by pin. Bargerstock has been the runner-up the last two years, including at 195 a year ago.
Notre Dame’s Luke Mullin will be looking for this third straight state title – this year at 126 – while Central has Alonzo Heyward at 152 and Signal Mountain has Seth Petarra at 182.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
Red Bank's Devin Crawl (left) receives some pointers from his coach, Shane Turner, during a timeout on the mat. Crawl will be wrestling for the Class A-AA championship in the 195-weight division on Saturday.
photo by Dennis Norwood