Seven boys and one girl Forrest wrestler qualified for the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association’s High School Wrestling Championships at the Williamson County Ag Expo Center in Franklin and after day one on Friday, there was only four grapplers left on the mat.

Defending state champion Nick McClendon, hobbled all week with a torn meniscus, gritted out a second crown in the 170-pound weight class.

It was not a surprise that McClendon competed after tearing his right meniscus in practice on Tuesday.

“My heart sunk when I heard it,” Forrest coach Jason Hill said. “He told us Thursday that he would tell us Friday whether he could go and I totally backed him one hundred percent on whatever he wanted to do.”

“In my mind, I knew he was gonna go and then he just went out there and took care of business like he has done all year.”

McClendon, an all-state running back on the Forrest football team, suffered a ruptured appendix in a game at Summertown on October 4, but still rushed for 106 yards and a touchdown in the contest.

He had an appendectomy on Saturday and was back as film study the following Sunday afternoon.

Three weeks later, McClendon returned to the lineup and rushed for 177 yards and a touchdown as Forrest went 10-0 to complete their first undefeated regular season in 40 years.

McClendon (23-1) started out the TSSAA Wrestling Championships with two pins and a big 15-0 technical fall win before completing the bracket sweep when he pinned Creek Wood senior Matthew Trotter in the first round of the title bout.

“I had an injury, a little bump in the road, you always face adversity this time of the year, so I had to fight it and get through it,” McClendon said. “I was lucky to have an opportunity to wrestle for my second state championship and come out on top, so it was just a blessing.”

Junior Noah Hill, who finished in second place in the 195-pound weight class last year, slimmed down and bulked up, dominating the 182-pound division the entire season, coming in to the tournament with a 32-2 record and fresh off capturing a second consecutive Region 3A/AA championship last weekend at East Ridge High School in Chattanooga.

There was no slowing Hill down as he also pinned his first two opponents and then routed sophomore Nathan Montpool from Nolensville with a 15-0 technical fall win.

Hill faced off against Region 1A/AA champion Joseph Skidmore from Pigeon Ford in the championship final Saturday night and after falling behind very early, Hill took a 6-4 lead at the end of the first period.

Skidmore managed to keep it close, trailing 8-5 at the end of two periods before Hill began to pile up the points to take a big lead before finishing off Skidmore at the 5:05 mark of the match.

“After losing last year in the championship match, I never wanted to have that feeling again,” Noah Hill said. “When I got out there I had some nerves, but after the nerves left, it was go time.”

“Skidmore wrested the Gibbs kid I wrestled in the second round and only beat him by two points and I pinned the Gibbs kid, so I was really confident going in to the match.”

“Noah came back with a vengeance this year and he busted his tail all year,” Nick McClendon said. “We have been partners all four years I have been here and we go in there and put our nose down and go to work and it all paid off in the end.”

After a couple of decades of close calls, the Rockets now have eight state titles in wrestling as the Forrest championship run began in 2014 when Tyler McClendon won the crown in the 195-pound weight class.

“It’s awesome being able to come back and watch these guys win more than one championship, they have improved all year and I couldn’t be more proud of them,” Tyler McClendon said. “Nick went out there and wrestled like a champ, all the credit goes out to him and the coaching staff that had him prepared.”

“He is the toughest kid I’ve ever seen and I’m proud to have him as a brother.”

Jeff Gross won back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018, plus the Rockets finished as team runner-ups in 2018.

Gross made it three in row when he won the 138-pound weight division last year and was joined on the championship podium spot by Wesley McCoy, who captured the state title at 160-pounds.

Forrest senior Jesmarie Negron also made a second trip to the state championships and after failing to win a match last year, Negron made a nice comeback after losing in this year’s first round on Friday.

After a brutal first-round draw and loss to eventual three-time state champion Kerra Strevel from Heritage High School, Negron came back with a pin over Bradley Central’s Abigail Beasley in the first consolation round and followed that with a close 9-5 decision over Coffee County sophomore Alanna Coker.

In the 125-pound third/fourth place match, Negron had a lead over Rossview senior Savanah Barefield before she got the tables turned and suffered a fall to finish in fourth place, the highest finish ever for a Forrest girls’ wrestler.

“She (Negron) had a tough draw in the first round,” Jason Hill said. “She came back this morning and faced the girl from Coffee County (Coker) that had pinned her in like a minute or something at the region and she came back and beat her on points this morning.”

“I’m super proud of her, she puts her head down in the room and works and is not afraid to grab one of the lighter weight boys and whip their butts.”

Eighth-grader Seth McCoy finished off a great inaugural campaign with a fourth-place finish, losing to Malik Wooten from Millington Central after a first round bye.

McCoy came up with three straight wins over White House freshman Cade Hutcherson (fall), an 11-5 decision over Red Bank’s Kyle Harper, followed by a huge 15-5 major decision over Greenbrier’s Jeff Bottoms in the consolation semifinals.

The underclassmen ruled the day in the third/fourth place match with Pigeon Ford freshman Andy Cable pinning McCoy. McCoy finished the season with a 27-10 record.

“He (McCoy) battled all the way back through the blood rounds and for an eighth grade kid to finish fourth at state is pretty awesome,” Jason Hill said. “That’s hard to do and he did it, he did a lot of growing up real fast and he took care of business.”

Hunter Pendley lost both of his matches, while Micha McClendon and Carson Blackwell went 1-2, and Braiden Vanderploeg lost his first round match, battled back to win the next two, but was knocked out in the consolation semifinals by Eagleville freshman Brody McLemore.

“Vanderploeg had a tough draw, but the future is bright for him and all those kids,” Jason Hill said. “But he fought and fought and fought and didn’t give up and that’s what I want to see.”

“Micah did the same thing, he fought and fought too.”

McLemore’s brother Wyatt also came up huge over weekend as the returning three-time state medalist completed an undefeated season at 49-0 in the 160-pound weight class.

The Eagleville junior could not be stopped as he recorded pins in his first two matches and came up with a 17-2 rout in the semifinals over Harpeth’s Cooper Edwards.

Mclemore squared off with returning two-time medalist Preston Worley from Signal Mountain in the title bout and held a 6-4 lead after the first round.

There was no denying McLemore a fourth time as he opened up a huge 12-4 lead after round two and he coasted home with a 14-5 win to claim the title.

McClendon and Hill followed their Eagleville comrade to the same mat and they both credited a huge momentum surge due to McLemore’s win, plus the boisterous Eagleville and Forrest fan bases that sat together in the stands.

“I kind of feel like it is three state titles for us with McLemore from Eagleville, and Jay (McLemore-Eagleville coach) feels the same way that he had three with Noah and Nick,” Jason Hill said. “The stars just aligned tonight and it was just boom, boom, boom.”

Marshall County High School junior Aaron Foster, making the first state tournament trip by a Tiger wrestler since 2004, could not sustain his momentum from the Region 3A/AA Tournament.

Foster had a tough first round draw, falling to two-time returning medalist and eventual state runnerup Ryan Wimbley from Alcoa.

Foster’s great season ended when Millington Central’s Jahmir O`Kain eliminated Foster via an 18-8 major decision win.

“We gotta keep this momentum going, we gotta get some more bodies in the room and maybe this will fire some of the younger ones to get in the room,” Jason Hill said. “I had a great support staff with Triton (Watkins-assistant coach) coming in and helping this year and that was great and the administration has also been great, they came in yesterday morning and wished us well and sent us off, and that’s how you build great programs.”