Dendy wins Folkstyle Nationals for a fourth time
Gordon Lee eighth grader Garrison Dendy won the USA Wrestling Folkstyle Nationals for a fourth time earlier this month and did so in dominant fashion.
Dendy went 5-0 with four pins and did not give up a single point in the tournament, which was held at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Rapids, April 1-2.
The tournament is the first leg of USA Wrestling’s Triple Crown, which also includes Freestyle and Greco-Roman Nationals.
Wrestling in the 120-pound class of the Schoolboy Division, Dendy pinned Parker Terronez of Illinois in 1:36, Blake DeGroff of Wisconsin in 1:33 and Brown Brown of Washington in 2:26 in
“The defense behind him was solid tonight. We made the one error, but piggy-backed it with a double play on the next batter.”
Mason Pettigrew had the only other hit for the Trojans. Lee Cunningham was saddled with the loss for NCCS. He went five innings, giving up three earned runs on four hits with a strikeout and three walks.
“This is a fun group of kids who have worked their tails off,” Dunfee added. “I like where we are right now. We’re still trying to put everything together - hitting, pitching, defense and base-running. We made a couple of base-running mistakes tonight that took us out of an inning, but with our pitching and defense, we’re moving right along.”
The win also clinched the North subregion title for the Trojans. Their opponent in the region championship series will be King’s Ridge Christian, whom Gordon Lee beat 7-6 at the Lakepoint Complex in Cartersville two weeks ago.
It was the first loss to a region team for the Tigers this season.
The best-of-three 6-A title series will begin on Friday, April 21 with two games in Chickamauga. A third game, if needed, would be played Saturday, April 22 at King’s Ridge. Gordon Lee got the two games at home due to a coin flip between the two subregions earlier this season. The South subregion will host the first two games of the region championship series next year.
The 6-A champion will also be seeded with the rest of the region winners at the top of their respective state playoff brackets in order of their power ranking numbers.
Gordon Lee was ranked No. 1 in the Class A Public School Division as of last Tuesday, while King’s Ridge was fourth in the Private School Division standings.
On more than one occasion this season, the Trojans have found a way to battle back from an early deficit to score a win.
This past Thursday at the Lakepoint Complex was not one of those times.
Gordon Lee fell behind 6-0 after three innings and suffered their first loss to a Region 6-A team this season as the Eagles handed the Trojans a loss in the rematch.
The loss also snapped a 10-game winning streak for the Navy-and-White, who fell to 16-4 overall and 9-1 in subregion play.
The Eagles (10-8, 5-5) scored twice in the bottom of the first on two hits and two walks from Clark, who started for the Trojans. Three more runs came home on three hits and a pair of walks in the second and a run on three hits in the third gave NCCS plenty of cushion.
Gordon Lee was able to scratch out solo runs in three separate innings. Clark scored from third base on a passed ball in the top of the fourth.
Peterson collected an RBI on a groundout in the sixth and a Kobie Cowan single in the seventh plated the Trojans’ final run of the day.
Clark lasted just 1 2/3 innings, giving up five runs on five hits with four walks. He struck out three batters and only one of the runs was earned.
Caleb Hopkins went 2-for-3 and was the only Gordon Lee player with multiple hits on the day. Clark scored twice and Rogers had the only extra-base hit - a double - as the Trojans were outhit, 10-6.
The Trojans were scheduled to host Christian Heritage on Tuesday before entertaining Rockmart in a non-region game on Wednesday.
Thursday will see Gordon Lee close out the region regular season schedule at Christian Heritage.
All three games are slated for 5:30 p.m. starts.