A pair of Greeneville wrestlers captured Section 1-A championships on Saturday while four Greene Devils are moving on to the Class A State Tournament after strong showings at Chuckey-Doak High School.
Senior Derrick Day won the 138 lb. sectional championship and freshman Brylan Rhodes finished on top of the podium at 106 lbs.
“I’m really proud of those guys. Anytime you can qualify for the state tournament its a big deal,” Greeneville coach Atlas Fagundes said. “Two of those guys are freshman and they had really good tournaments. I’m super happy for these guys that qualified for the state tournament.”
Day had a big offensive day, scoring a lot of points on his way to the finals. He started the day with a 17-1 technical fall of Lucas Burnette of Seymour. He followed that up with a 15-3 major decision over Christopher Puryear of Gibbs.
In his championship match Day got a quick take down of Anderson County’s Max Wolfey, and then he worked for a minute to find an opportunity to pin the Maverick. With 22 seconds left in the first period he ended his tournament emphatically by planting Wolfey’s shoulders to the mat.
“Derrick has been so consistent and hyper offensive all year, and we saw that again today,” Fagundes said. “He put a lot of points on the board and had a lot of take downs. Then he is tough as nails on top. It was great to see him get to that near bar and pin a guy in the first round of the finals. I hope this fuels him going into the state tournament.”
Rhodes came into the sectional tournament motivated after a runner-up finish in the Region 1-A Tournament, and he dominated his bracket on Saturday. He started the tournament with a second-period pin of Pigeon Forge’s Jayden Patel. In the semifinals he took a 17-1 technical fall of Cocke County’s Micah Williams.
In the finals Rhodes went to second period holding on to a 5-3 lead over Jimmy Johnson of Sullivan East. He then got rolling and racked up a 14-7 advantage before pinning Johnson just before the period ended.
“I was glad to see Brylan bounce back,” Fagundes said. “He had some things he had to work on after last week. He had to mentally correct himself, but he was able to do it. To be a sectional champion as a freshman is really impressive. It’s a big deal to get one of those top four seeds in the state tournament.”
Gabriel Oakley (113) also advanced to the finals on Saturday. In his championship Oakley was in control of the first period and held a 9-2 lead. In the second period he found himself on bottom of a roll and was pinned while leading 9-4.
Oakley made it to the finals behind two first-period pins.
Freshman Kaleb Smith (157) will also be competing in the state tournament next week after finishing in fourth place on Saturday. He clinched his trip to state by getting late take down of Scott County’s Cayden Moffette and using four near-fall points to swing the 11-10 decision in his favor.
“Kaleb is freshman competing in a weight class full of seniors. For him to be able to advance to state is a really big deal,” Fagundes said.
On Friday at the Girls Section 1 Tournament at Northview Academy West Greene’s Megan Hinkle earned a third-place finish and earned a trip to the state tournament.
The state tournament will begin on Friday, February 21 at the Williamson County Expo Center in Franklin.
“I want these guys to do more of what Derrick is doing,” Fagundes said. “We need to be able to score from a lot of positions. We need to find ways to score all of the time. These guys are around the corner from being able to do that, but they are getting closer and closer. Hopefully in the next week we can clean some of that up and stay healthy.”
