The Greeneville wrestling team came within one match of advancing to the Class A Duals State Tournament on Friday night, but the Greene Devils fell to Anderson County 42-33 in the state sectionals.
The young Greene Devils with seven freshmen in the lineup battled to the finish and closed the gap late to give themselves a chance, but the Mavericks proved to be too much to handle.
“We care about our kids wrestling as hard as they can for six minutes, and if somebody else has better wrestlers than you, then they have better wrestlers than you,” Greeneville coach Atlas Fagundes said. “The majority of the team wrestled to the absolute best of their ability, and tonight just didn’t go our way. These kids are upset, and loses are never fun, but we just aren’t at that level yet. These guys wrestled really well, we just came up one man short.”
The night started with Greeneville’s Donavan Sanchez (165) and Anderson County’s Isaiah Tuckey getting into a three-round battle, but with 30 seconds left Tuckey was able to get his side three extra team points when he got Sanchez on his back for a pin.
Next up Greeneville senior Angus Herrell (175) kept his perfect season going when he used four take downs to earn a 12-2 major decision.
A forfeit followed to put the Greene Devils in front 10-6, but that lead was short lived after Anderson County’s Eli Bratton (215) picked up a 20-4 technical fall over Hayden Matthews. That moved the Mavericks in front 11-10.
Next Anderson County’s Josh Bingham (285) pinned John Chapman in the second period.
Greeneville’s Brylan Rhodes (106) needed just 43 seconds to pin Chris Baldwin, and that closed the team-score gap to 17-16.
Anderson County won the next three matches and stretched the lead to 32-16. Aiden Reed (113) earned a 17-0 technical fall over Sonny Pryor. Zed Hullet (120) took a 10-0 decision over Gabriel Oakley. Tripe Idaire (126) pinned Greg Tester.
The Greene Devils got going again when Cameron Sneed (132) pushed Edmund Presson all over the matt and needed just 3:39 to earn a 17-0 technical fall.
Derrick Day (138) kept things rolling for Greeneville when he pinned Max Wolfley with just 32 seconds left in the third period. With three weight classes left the Devils were back within striking distance at 32-27.
“My coaching staff, Javelle Gillespie and Randy Shelton, they put together and great game plan. They put the plan together, and we executed the plan to the best of our abilities. It just didn’t go our way at the end,” Fagundes said.
At 144 lbs. Hayden Harrell gave the Mavericks some breathing room by working a 24-9 technical fall of Michael Hurst.
Greeneville’s Mack Hall (150) won by forfeit, and with one match left the Greene Devils had a chance, trailing 37-33.
In the final match Evan Prewitt (157) sent the Mavericks to the state tournament by earning a 17-1 technical fall over Hunter Shelton.
“In order to improve you have to feel something,” Fagundes said. “You can learn a lot through loss, and I think we learned some things about some of these kids tonight. It’s going to sting because they are teenagers and everything is hyper emotional. But I think these guys will bounce back, and there is still a lot of season left for a lot of these guys.”
Greeneville will not be competing in Franklin next week for the Class A Duals State Championship, but there are still plenty of Greene Devils who hope to earn an individual medal on February 21, and now their attention will turn to the individual portion of the season.
“Things will be different in the room going forward. We only get one kid per weight class, so we’ll lose some practice partners, and they’ll go on to track and soccer,” Fagundes said. “The mentality changes a little when you go to the individual part of the season. We have guys that have to figure out what weight they want to go with. They have to figure out what is the best path for them. This part of the season is 100 percent theirs. Dual meets are 100 percent on me as the coach, I own this loss. Individuals are the exact opposite. The kid has to get themself ready if they want to get a state medal.”
