FRANKLIN – Four Greeneville wrestlers truly dominated the field on Thursday during the Class A Wrestling State Tournament to keep themselves in position to finish the tournament on top of the podium.
Carson Dupill (120), Hunter Mason (145), Colin Dupill (152), and Morgan Lowery (195) all picked up two wins on the opening day of the tournament and will compete in the state semifinals on Friday.
“Our guys wrestled really, really well,” Greeneville coach Randy Shelton said. “Those guys in semis are experienced wrestlers and they know what to do at this stage. Expectations are high for those guys, but they always show up and compete. When things go their way it’s a lot of fun to watch. They all have moves that everybody knows are coming, and they hit them anyway. A lot of people here are afraid of those guys and that’s a good thing.”
All 11 of the other local wrestlers that came to the Williamson County Ag Expo Center on Thursday are still alive in the tournament, but their championship hopes have been dashed. They will begin grappling again at 10 a.m. Central Time on Friday and try to work their ways toward third place in their brackets.
Lowery may have had the most impressive day of all of the Greene Devils. Of the four semifinalists Lowery is the only one without a state title already under his belt, and he is hungry to change that. He only spent a total of 1:11 on the mat on his way to claiming a pair of pins.
He started the day by dropping Kyle Kowalski of Page in 21 seconds. Then in the quarterfinals he put Stone Memorial’s Khalli Dishman on his back in 50 seconds.
“Morgan is absolutely hungry,” Shelton said. “Last year we lost him to injury around Christmas, but he has come back on fire. He wrestled really well today. He’s a good kid, and as a coach you want to see good things happen to good kids.”
Carson Dupill is looking to become a back-to-back state champion as a sophomore, and got his tournament started by pinning Carson Haney of Upperman in 1:53. In the second round Harpeth’s Landon Turner challenged Dupill early, but once Dupill gained the advantage he powered his way to a 19-4 technical fall.
Hunter Mason who already has won three state championships for the Greene Devils started his path to a fourth the right way on Thursday. First he pinned Kaiden Weitzel of Livingston Academy in 1:10 and then in the quarterfinals he improved on that by downing Stone Memorial’s Aubrey Thompson in 1:02.
Colin Dupill will try to win his second state title in Tennessee on Saturday, and his fourth overall after claiming two in Virginia.
If you blinked you might have missed a good portion of Dupill’s first match on Thursday as he nailed Eric Barragan of Tullahoma to the mat in 15 seconds. In the quarterfinals Dupill earned a 21-4 technical fall over East Ridge’s Anthony Copeland.
Gabe Oakley (106) also advanced to the quarterfinals on Thursday after starting the tournament by winning a 4-3 decision over Stone Memorial’s Luke Higdon. In the quarterfinals Oakley was pinned by John Haney of Upperman.
“I do want to give a shoutout to Gabe Oakley for a big first-round win, nobody expected him to win that match. It was close the whole way, but he wrestled really well,” Shelton said.
Greeneville’s Christian Feltner (285), Angus Herrell (160) and Josue Castillo (126) all lost their opening matches of the state tournament.
In the girls tournament all three Greeneville wrestlers were eliminated from the championship side of the bracket earlier than they had hopped, and they will now have to readjust overnight to stay in the hunt for a medal on Friday.
Rhyne Johson (100) advanced to the second round after pinning Arlington’s Alexandria Barker in 1:22, but in the quarterfinals she dropped a tough 12-11 decision to Grace Von Loh of Riverdale.
Jenna Baines (107) started her state tournament with a pin of Northwest Julie Garcia in 1:53. She was then pinned by Mila Risner of Oakland in the quarterfinals.
Allie Shelton (114) was pinned by Ka’leas Dansby of McGavock in 2:53 in the first round.
“We have to clear their heads, and we have to get them ready to come back tomorrow,” coach Shelton said. “They have to decide to put together three tough matches to medal. It may sound like coach speak, but they have to have that steel in their gut to decide today wasn’t acceptable and that they are going to do better tomorrow.”
West Greene had four wrestlers compete on Thursday, but Jeffrey Hawk (138), Hunter Gregg (170), Roger Marshall (220) and Macy Greenlee (235) all dropped their opening matches of the state tournament.
