Pate finishes as state runner-up, Val, Archer medal in girls wrestling tourney
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The Division I boys and girls state wrestling championships concluded on Saturday at the Williamson County Ag Expo Park with three local wrestlers earning medals for their placements in their respective brackets.
St. Andrew’s-Sewanee senior Verena Pate had the best placement of the day among the local wrestlers as she finished as the state runner-up in the girls 126-pound division.
Pate entered the day looking to repeat as champion of the 126-pound weight class with the only opponent left in her way being freshman Audrey Levendusky of Montgomery Central.
Levendusky struck first on the scoreboard as she scored a takedown in the first round and a 3-point nearfall in the second round to take a 5-0 lead.
Pate was able to bring her opponent down to the mat multiple times throughout the match, but she wasn’t able to gain enough control to convert those opportunities into points as she ultimately lost in a 5-0 decision to finish as the bracket’s runner-up.
Sewanee junior Melanie Val wrestled for third place in the girls 114-pound division with her opponent being Cleveland’s Senna Grassman.
After a scoreless opening round on both sides, Val netted a three-point nearfall in the second to take a 3-1 lead into the final round.
The points came quickly in the third round as a takedown by Grassman was countered by an escape and a reciprocating takedown by Val. Following a reversal from Grassman, Val once again recorded an escape and a takedown to take a 10-5 lead with about 15 seconds left.
However, Grassman quickly reversed Val’s takedown into a pinning predicament as the final seconds ticked away.
In addition to the five points she gained from the reversal and a 3-point nearfall in the closing moments of the match, Grassman was also awarded a point for a penalty on Val, giving Grassman the win by an 11-10 decision and putting Val in fourth place for her bracket.
Alyssa Archer, a Huntland junior who wrestles for the Franklin County High School girls team, made program history Saturday as she became the first FCHS wrestler to receive a state medal.
Archer competed in the girls 100-pound bracket’s fifth-place match against Dobyns-Bennett’s Alivia Ryan who had beaten Archer in the quarterfinals of the bracket earlier in the week.
Ryan was in control of the action early as a takedown and a two-point nearfall gave her a 4-0 advantage after the first round.
Archer scored two points on a reversal in the second round, but Ryan pinned her later in the same frame with the pinfall loss in 2:38 putting Archer in sixth place for the division.
The state wrestling tournament marked the end of the season for the FCHS and St. Andrew’s-Sewanee wrestling teams.

