Greene County grapplers dominated the Region 1-A wrestling tournament on Saturday afternoon at Greeneville High School.
In total nine local wrestlers claimed region championships and 19 athletes from Greene County are moving on to the sectionals that will be held next week at Gibbs High School.
Greeneville captured the team championship on Saturday with 223 points, outdistancing second-place Elizabethton by 57 points. Eight different Greene Devils finished on top of the podium on Saturday.
“The guys did great today, they all wrestled really hard,” Greeneville assistant coach Malik Harris said. “I can’t wait to get back in the room and practice this week and see what they can do in the sectionals. I’m so proud of the way they handled this. At the beginning of the day we challenged them to come out here and dominate, and that is what they did.”
Senior Hunter Shelton led Greeneville’s championship effort by claiming the 150 lb. title and being named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler for the upper weight classes.
“It’s pretty cool to get outstanding wrestler, I’ve never gotten that before. I have to give a lot of credit to my coaches and my practice partner Mack (Hall). It was a tough match in the finals, I knew it was going tough coming in. But it was a fun day,” Shelton said. “
In the finals Shelton got into a battle with Volunteer’s Austin Glass in which blood and both bodies were flying all over the mat. Through two periods Shelton built a 7-2 lead, and then he had to hold on for a 10-8 decision as Glass gave everything he had in a late comeback attempt.
Shelton advanced to the finals with a 17-2 technical fall over Nathan Greenwood of Daniel Boone and a 31-second pin of Jacob Pressley from Elizabethton.
Shelton was not the only Greene Devil that was pushed to the limit in the finals, but each time they seemed to be able to pull out the win.
Senior Gabriel Oakley (120) captured his region championship by earning a 12-7 decision over Volunteer’s Cayden Bowen.
Defending state champion Braylan Rhodes used the three pins to claim the 126 lb. championship. In the finals he built an 11-2 lead on Elizabethton’s Tristian Richardson before gluing the Cyclone’s shoulders to the mat in 2:33.
Cameron Sneed (144) used a 16-9 decision over Sullivan East’s Austin Osborne to capture his region title. He used two pins to advance to the finals.
Greeneville’s Mack Hall dominated the 157 lb. bracket on Saturday. He started with a first-period pin of Cocke County’s Andrew Jones, and followed with a 20-second pin of West Greene’s Easly Anderson. In the finals Hall earned a 15-0 technical fall over Sullivan East’s Bently Key.
In the 165 lb. finals Greeneville’s Gideon Ellenburg and Elizabethton’s Matthew Hehn traded blows for all six minutes. With 1:01 left Ellenburg lost the lead when top-seeded Hehn worked a reversal, but 18 seconds later Ellenburg dug deep and pushed through Hehn’s hold for a reversal of his own. He was able to stay on top to the buzzer for a 10-9 decision and region championship.
Hayden Moore (190) pushed Volunteer’s Christian Bullock around for six minutes to earn a 12-1 major decision in his championship match.
Greeneville’s Hayden Matthews (215) was able to pin Chuckey-Doak’s Christian Turberville in 1:49 to claim his region championship.
Chuckey-Doak’s Cayden Stills collected a lot of points on Saturday on his way to the 106 lb. championship. In the finals he worked a 23-7 technical fall of Cocke County’s Shane Patterson, and in the semifinals he earned a 17-1 technical fall of Elizabethton’s Reagan Sansom.
Stills was named the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler for the lower weight classes.
Five Black Knights advanced to the sectionals by finishing in the top four on Saturday. Marcus Britt (175) was third, while Cole McClure (138) and Parker McMurray (190) placed fourth.
West Greene is sending three wrestlers to the sectionals. Andrew Freshour (132), Blake Parman (113) and Easly Anderson (157) all placed fourth.
For Greeneville James Treptow was runner up at 175 lbs. while Christian Tomas-Padilla (113) and Greg Tester (132) both placed third. All three will compete in next week’s sectionals, bringing Greeneville’ total to 11 wrestlers advancing.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class at the sectionals will qualify for the state tournament.
“These are all really tough kids who have big hearts, and they were able to push through today,” Harris said. “Over the next week we are going to focus on conditioning, and critiquing those fine edges. Then its about going down there and giving it all you have to see if you can qualify for state.”
At the Region 1 Girls Tournament on Friday at Morristown East Chuckey-Doak had four wrestlers advance to the sectionals. Lucy Hall (114) and Julieann Mikan (145) both placed third while Chianna Nelson (120) and Cora Merrill (138) both finished in fourth place.
