The last two years Munford High School established itself as having one of the best wrestling programs in West Tennessee, sending 13 wrestlers to state during that time span.
That trend is continuing this year.
Six Munford wrestlers finished second in the region meet Feb. 10 at Bartlett High School and all six are headed to the Class AAA state meet Feb. 24-26 in Franklin. Inclement weather moved the meet back a week.
Senior Chase Millican (120 pounds) is back at state for the fourth time and juniors Christian Perez Jr. (138) and Wemauwaumu Moktani (126) return as three-time qualifiers. Senior Gavin Haynes (170) is a two-time qualifier and junior Jermyah Davis (195) and freshman Kannon Blagg (106) will compete at state for the first time.
Davis took a unique route to the state meet. He lost his first-round region match to a wrestler he beat previously but beat the top seed after that to make state.
“When I left that day the kid on my mind most was JD (Davis),” said Munford coach David Cline. “To me that was big. The other five to make it to finals was also noteworthy.”
Last year Munford wrestler Keegan Schulz took third place, becoming the first Munford wrestler in several years to medai.
Cline believes multiple Munford wrestlers have the opportunity to medal next week in Franklin.
“I’ve been studying brackets,” Cline said. “Two, maybe three, have a really good shot to medal this year. Anything can happen with these kids if they wrestle right. If all the stars align we bring home three medals.”
As was the case with all sports, wrestling was challenging during COVID.
“It really wasn’t that bad for us as far as scheduling goes,” Cline said. “To me the biggest disadvantage to going through this season was the mental toll that this took on the kids. It was very tough mentally to get through this year with a pandemic going on. To me that was the biggest struggle of the year. Not just in wrestling, but in life. Kids don’t always cope as well as adults do.”
