Four Score: Quartet of local wrestlers take titles at Huntsville
As a group, local wrestlers may have had their best AHSAA State Wrestling Championships in a long time, if not all time.
A pair of Hayden Wildcats joined members of the Mortimer Jordan and Fultondale squads at the top of their respective award platforms Saturday at the Von Braun Center.
Brandon Buchanan and Tyler Newton took titles for Hayden, with Buchanan also being honored as pinning all of his opponents in the least aggregate time of all contestants at the tournament.
Buchanan won the 140-pound Class 5A title by pinning Brannon Estes of Southside-Gadsden in two minutes and 44 seconds. That match was actually longer than his other two matches combined, as Buchanan recorded a first-round pin over Mac Kilpatrick of Springville in a speedy 16 seconds, and needed 1:47 to take down Scottsboro’s Chase McClure.
Newton took the 160-pound class with a wild 10-8 decision over Dakota Isbell of Southside. The match featured takedowns, reversals and near-falls galore, in a repeat of a bout between the two from sectional qualifying.
“We knew this one would be good,” Hayden coach Paul Moore said.
“Tyler beat him 7-0 at sectionals. We were going for the first takedown, then work for the cradle and try to pin him. Isbell didn’t cooperate,” Moore chuckled.
Trey Howse (112 lbs.), the third of Hayden’s finalists, was pinned by Leo Gaspar of Fort Payne just 20 seconds before time would have run out, and settled for second place.
Mortimer Jordan’s Travis Shellnutt won the 119-pound 5A title with a 4-2 decision over Pierce Gowan of Tallassee, in a match that could have gone either way and very nearly did.
One non-call in the first period, when it Shellnutt looked to havetaken Gowan down, was not awarded. Gowan scored a takedown later in the period to go up by a 2-0 score.
The tables turned in the second, when Shellnutt scored a takedown as he brought Gowan down by the ankles with Gowan headed out of bounds, tying the match at 2-2.
Shellnutt finally took the match in the third, in which he started in the defensive (down) position. He was able to flip Gowan for a reversal, which turned out to be the title-winning move.
“Travis was awesome,” Devils coach Terry Tingle said. “He’s been working hard on this for five years. Some guys do this from childhood and never get this close. He finished second last year and worked really hard. He went into a bit of a lull at sectionals, but he pinned this guy [Gowan] there. We knew it would be tough.”
Fultondale’s lone finalist made the best of it, as Brett Pennington scored a title in the Class 1A-4A 152-pound class with a pin of Piedmont’s Jordan Tyree just 10 seconds into the third period of the final match.
Pennington dominated the finals, scoring four near-falls before the pin. Like Buchanan before him, Pennington won all three of his matches by pin, including a first-round victory in just 34 seconds.
Perhaps the day’s biggest surprise was not who won, but who didn’t.
Brandon Brindley of Jordan, who had won state championships as an eighth-grader and a sophomore at lower weights and was gunning for his third straight gold medal with a berth in the 5A 125-pound finals, was up against Jarod Stephenson of Arab, who was the defending champ at 125.
After a scoreless first period, Brindley — starting down in the second — wriggled free for a one-point escape.
Stephenson chose to start down in the third, but instead of just simply getting out for an escape, Stephenson was able to flip Brindley and get a reversal for two.
Brindley had to take both of his allowed injury time-outs in the third period, once for a nagging ankle problem that has pestered him much of the season, and the second time for an elbow to the groin.
By rule, the second time out gave Stephenson the option of choosing a starting position on the restart. He chose to start down again, in order to deny Brindley a shot at a takedown and two points.
Brindley let Stephenson loose for an intentional escape, but had only 17 seconds left to get a match-tying takedown, and came up empty. Stephenson won 3-1.
“That match was as much like a collegiate match as you will ever see at this level,” Tingle said. “Give credit where it is due — Stephenson wrestled really well. We got high running at his legs [in the second], and instead we gave up two points. It’s the chance you take. Then we he put us up with 17 seconds left, we had to cut him [allow Stephenson to escape intentionally]. That was our only shot.”
Brindley, now a sophomore, will have to more chances at state titles in his career. In fact, Tingle’s team has no seniors; everyone is back in 2011.
The Devils also got podium finishes from Jake Jasper, who placed third at 160, and Josh Pate, fourth at 152.
Fultondale’s Steven Lindsey finished fourth in Class 1A-4A 112 lbs.
Gardendale brought eight wrestlers to the finals, but only three advanced to Saturday’s Class 6A matches.
Daniel Swann took fourth place at 140, Connor Hayman was fifth at 125 and Joel Jones took sixth at 171.
Note: A photo caption in Wednesday’s print edition incorrectly identified Travis Shellnutt as Brandon Buchanan. (Buchanan was in the photo to the right instead.) Our apologies.