Father Ryan watches state wrestling title slip away: 3 key moments from the TSSAA duals

FRANKLIN — Father Ryan's bid for a second straight state wrestling dual championship fell short in the final three matches of the TSSAA Division II-AAA final Saturday at the Williamson County Ag Center.

McCallie won its final three weight classes and erased a late match deficit, knocking off Father Ryan 38-31 to cap off a day that saw four schools capture state duals titles, including Cleveland High, which took the Division I-AA and girls state dual championships.

Nashville area teams failed to win a state title despite competing in three championship finals. In addition to Father Ryan, Tullahoma lost to Soddy Daisy 44-16 in the DI-A final, and Clarksville High girls lost to Cleveland 36-32.

Cleveland's boys captured a 38-36 win over Knoxville Halls in a competition where the score was much closer than the action on the mat. The Blue Raiders forfeited their final four matches with the championship already in hand.

Lakeway Christian captured the Division II-A/AA championship with a 42-30 win over Boyd Buchanan.

Here are three moments that mattered from Saturday's championships.

McCallie flips the script on Father Ryan

Zaydan Morgan's pin of Father Ryan's Patrick McGrady in the final match, at 150 pounds, sealed the win for McCallie, which captured its seventh state duals title in program history and first since 2006.

But it was the penultimate match, at 144 pounds, that proved to be the backbreaker for Father Ryan. With the Tornado trailing 31-26, Cooper Ledbetter rallied from a 4-1 deficit and pinned Father Ryan's Aron Tenpenny for six points that gave McCallie a 32-31 lead.

"Every year that you're in the state dual finals, there's always one match that you think you should've won," Father Ryan coach Patrick Simpson said. "I felt like we should've won 144. If we win that match, we win. But that's the way it goes."

In the match prior, at 138, Ethan Lampert nearly won his match with a late move that could have resulted in two points, but it came just after the third-period buzzer that would have given him a 4-3 win and Father Ryan an extra three points. McCallie's Dylan Villers held on for the 3-2 win instead. McCallie won the final three weight classes for the title, and Father Ryan missed out on a 10th championship in the program history.

"Our kids put in the work," said Simpson, whose team beat Baylor in last year's state duals final and in Saturday's semifinal. "That was huge because (Baylor) beat us by 15 earlier in the year."

Third trip not a charm for Clarksville

Clarksville's girls have not missed a state duals tournament since the sport was first sanctioned by the TSSAA in 2022. The Lady Wildcats have competed in all three tournaments but have yet to come away with a title, losing to Cleveland 36-32.

Cleveland forfeited its final three weight classes, not wanting to risk injuries to its wrestlers with the state individual championships on the horizon in two weeks.

Clarksville's Brooklyn Whiteside gave her team a 4-0 lead after the first match, but Cleveland dominated after that. The Lady Blue Raiders pinned Clarksville's next four wrestlers before Clarksville responded with 10 straight team points to cut Cleveland's lead to 24-14. But Cleveland put the match away with pins from Makya Parker and Senna Grassman.

"Cleveland had six state placers and four additional state qualifiers back on their team and we had two state placers and one qualifier back," Clarksville first-year coach Doug Badon said. "We were competitive. It's been a long year, getting everyone to buy in, but they believed in themselves."

It's the second straight state dual title for Cleveland, which beat Clarksville in last year's state semifinal. Clarksville lost to Rossview in the first girls state dual championship in 2022.

Brentwood captures consolation title

The Bruins' 10th trip to the state duals tournament ended with a consolation win over Summit 40-32. Brentwood hasn't made a state title appearance since 1998 and was knocked out by Cleveland in the DII-AA semifinal Saturday 45-30.

But the Bruins responded in the consolation bracket, beating Dobyns-Bennett 36-34, before taking third with their win over Summit. Brentwood won five of the first seven weight classes, then had to hang on as the Spartans mounted a charge and got within 36-32 entering the final match.

The Bruins' Clark Vaughn ended the Spartans' hopes with a 14-3 win over Summit's Jayden McKinney.

Reach sports writer George Robinson at georgerobinson@theleafchronicle.com and on the X platform (formerly Twitter) @Cville_Sports.