Tough injury forfeits at tourney for FHS wrestling pair
HALLS — Three Farragut High School wrestlers made it out of their respective weight class brackets at the annual Chris Vandergriff Halls Invitational Jan. 18, but things didn’t go well for two of them.
Both left North Knox County with head injuries, which were possible concussions.
Zach Garabrandt, the Admirals’ 138-pound athlete at one of the biggest annual tournaments in Knox County, posted a fourth-place finish. But he lost the third-place match via injury default against Cookeville’s Clinton Gonzalez in the second period late Saturday afternoon at Halls High School.
Garabrandt left this tourney with a season record of 24-10.
In the 152-pound weight division, Farragut’s Cole Mach lost by medical forfeit to Manny Scott of Brentwood Academy. Mach was leading 7-4 when the bout was halted.
Mach was 23-11 after the weekend.
In the 285-pound weight class, the Admirals’ Corey Walker finished seventh in his bracket after picking up a forfeit win versus Heritage’s Jose Vananda.
With his victory in the final round, Walker improved to 15-14 entering this week.
Admirals head coach Bobby Hampshire said he was disappointed that a long and successful day came to a tough and abrupt end.
“You don’t ever want to lose a match because of an injury and you don’t ever want to win a match because somebody gets hurt,” Hampshire said. “I don’t like that, nobody does.
“These guys were both having a good day until this happened to them in the end,” he added about Garabrandt and Mach.
“Zach wrestled well, and for Cole this was a really good day. It was a learning day. He learned a lot.”
