It was a little over three weeks ago, McCallie having just lost its dual wrestling match against Baylor on Senior Night in the Student Activities Center.
Momentarily tied at 27 against the powerful Red Raiders, the school from across the river ultimately prevailed that night 39-27. But as McCallie senior Cooper Gentle, the defending state champion at 215 pounds, summed up that match and the wrestling opportunities still to come, he said, “This isn’t the end. We have the potential to do a lot better.”
Come the evening of February 14 at Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, the Blue Tornado did just that, becoming the best team in the state for the second time in three years and 10th time overall, topping that same Baylor squad 276.5 to 246 to win the Division II traditional state wrestling tournament. The 276.5 total was the most McCallie has ever totaled in state competition.
“I’m just extremely proud of our boys,” said McCallie coach Jake Yost. “Placing 14 boys on the podium, 14 kids who scored points, is really special. I felt good about the state all week because I knew we had 14 kids who could win matches. I felt like nobody was as deep as us and that proved to be true.”
It wasn’t only depth. Gentle repeated as state champ at 215. Sophomore Dylan Villers, who missed the Baylor dual match with an illness, won at 150 pounds, winning with a first-period pin in the finals. Then there was 132-pound sophomore Jaxon Lane, who was named the meet’s most outstanding wrestler after winning his third straight individual state title.
“The referees vote on that award, and I actually thought a couple of my teammates were more deserving,” said Lane. “But I’ll take it.”
Yet to overcome the injury he endured just to wrestle in the state meet, no one may have deserved that award more than Lane, who broke his left hand early in the season and had six screws inserted to help it heal.
“I’m left hand dominant,” Lane said. “So I had to learn to wrestle defensively. I’m normally known as an attacker, but I had to change how I wrestled after the injury. There were a lot of one-point wins.” (To that end, he won his Baylor match at McCallie, 2-1.)
Said Yost, “In terms of injuries and stuff, it’s been a hard year. The last two weeks are the first time we’ve had everybody healthy.”
Added Lane, when asked which title was more special, this past weekend’s or the 2024 state crown, “I’d probably say this one because we had to overcome so much to win it and everybody, all 14 wrestlers, contributed to it.”
Indeed, all 14 McCallie wrestlers earned points. From Charlie Silberman at 106, to Knox Ritchie at 113 to Brody Connell at 120 to Cooper Ledbetter at 190 to Cannon Voiles at 285, who finished third. Then there were the six runnerups: Axel Ritchie (126), Cooper Manakis (138), Billy Hamilton (144), Cainan Williams (157), Jon Cross (165) and Zayden Morgan (175).
“We finally got everyone healthy at the right time,” Villers told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. “We knew we were a better tournament team than a dual team. We knew we had a chance to win the state traditional tournament all season.”
Yost also pointed to Baylor as a reason this title will be long remembered.
“They won six individual titles this weekend,” he said. “So we beat a really good team. That’s part of what makes this special. We had to be at our best to win it.”
And while the long-term future of the program looks bright, this team still has one more week to make some noise. McCallie is expected to take a large contingent to the high school nationals this coming weekend at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
“We only graduate three of 14,” said Yost. “We graduate 65 points from the weekend and Baylor loses 140. We feel like the program is headed in the right direction, that the foundation has been set.”
Lane’s great weekend didn’t end with the most outstanding wrestler award, either. The team celebrated its state title with a dinner stop at Culver's in Murfreesboro on the way home. Lane ordered a chicken sandwich and fries. But the order got misplaced.
“So they gave me a free custard,” he said.
An appropriately sweet ending to one of the sweetest McCallie state championships ever.
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