The Forrest Rockets sent 10 grapplers to the TSSAA State Tournament last season and came away with three state titles and one runner-up spot.

Forrest is a little short-handed this season and probably won’t win many dual meets because of open weight classes, but watch out for the Rockets in the individuals as witnessed by a solid showing in the Region 3A/AA Super Scramble at Nolensville High School on Saturday.

“We are just low on numbers, we got a lot of young guys,” first-year Forrest coach Jason “Shooter” Hill said. “One match can change your whole season by someone getting hurt and missing weigh-ins can change so much.”

“There is nothing I can really do with the duals, I’m giving up too many forfeits, but we can really concentrate on the individual tournaments and that is what we have really been working on.”

Defending state champion Nick McClendon, coming off an injury that slowed the Forrest senior down for much of the season, came back with a vengeance on Saturday with a sweep of the 170-pound weight class on five consecutive pins to finish in first place.

Only one match lasted more than a minute in McClendon’s dominating performance.

McClendon (12-1) went undefeated last season and his only loss so far in the 2019-2020 campaign was to Beech senior Donovan Rich (18-9) in a close 9-4 decision at the Harpeth Individual on December 7, 2019.

Junior Noah Hill, who is the defending state runner-up in the 195-pound weight class, has moved down to 182 this season and he also dominated that division on Saturday with three consecutive pins before coming away with a tough 7-2 decision over Eagleville’s Jason Dennis in the title bout.

Rocket senior Carson Blackwell has come on strong for Forrest this season, moving from the 145-pound weight class that he qualified for the state tournament last year to 138, vacated by three-time state champion Jeff Gross.

Blackwell (21-8) won all five of his bouts on Saturday to claim the title with a blowout win in round one, a pin in round two and then in round three, Blackwell gutted out a tough 5-2 victory over Richard Shipley from Signal Mountain.

Blackwell finished off the field with consecutive pins over Whitwell’s Cooper Horton and Erik Johnson from Eagleville.

Maybe the biggest surprise this year is eighth-grader Seth McCoy, who has hit the high school mats with a bang, posting a 19-6 record on the season, highlighted by a solid second place finish on Saturday.

All four of McCoy’s wins were by falls and his only loss was by fall to Signal Mountain’s Noah Shriner, who was a state tournament participant last season at 120-pounds.

McCoy’s older brother Wesley won the state title last season at 160 and eldest brother Zach also had a great wrestling career at Forrest.

Sophomore Braiden Vanderploeg wrestled in the state tournament last year at 102-pounds before moving up to 120 this season and it has worked out well as he came away with a third-place finish on Saturday.

Forest Ozburn also qualified for the state tournament last year at 113-pounds and has moved up two weight classes to 132 where he took fourth place on Saturday.

Asa Nance (132) finished fifth, Layne Bowman (106) and Hunter Pendley (145) sixth, and eighth-grader Sean Paul Febus (152) finished in 11th place.

The Region 3A-AA Individual Tournament is February 14th and 15th at East Ridge High School in Chattanooga.

Region 3 Super Scramble

Saturday, January 18

Nolensville, TN

106-Pounds

Layne Bowman (Forrest, Jr., 7-17)-Sixth Place

Caleb Uhorchuk (Signal Mountain) over Layne Bowman, (Fall 1:00).

Layne Bowman over Tyler Freeman (Watertown), (MD 13-4).

Layne Bowman over Jackson Owens (Signal Mountain), (Fall 4:36).

Malikhi Johnson (Red Bank) over Layne Bowman, (Fall 3:32).

113

Seth McCoy (Forrest, 8th-grade, 19-6)-Second Place

Seth McCoy over Johnathan Bloom (Sequatchie), (Fall 0:36).

Seth McCoy over Kyle Harper (Red Bank), (Fall 2:42).

Noah Shriner (Signal Mountain) over Seth McCoy, (Fall 1:47).

Seth McCoy over Jackson Patrick (Signal Mountain), (Fall 1:05).

120

Braiden Vanderploeg (Forrest, Soph., 15-9)-Third Place

Braiden Vanderploeg over Kaleb McCallum (Signal Mountain), (Fall 3:18).

Brody McLemore (Eagleville) over Braiden Vanderploeg, (Fall 3:08).

Daniel Uhorchuk (Signal Mountain) over Braiden Vanderploeg, (TF 16-1 2:09).

Braiden Vanderploeg over Drake Hodge (Cascade), (Fall 3:32).

132

Asa Nance (Forrest, Soph., 5-8)-Fifth Place

Paxton Albright (Sequatchie) over Asa Nance, (Fall 1:13).

Asa Nance over Cole Jenkins (Signal Mountain), (Dec 9-5).

Asa Nance over Bradley Bullock (Eagleville), (Fall 0:57).

Asa Nance over Carson Graham (Eagleville), (Fall 4:44).

132

Forest Ozburn (Forrest, Soph., 5-10)-Fourth Place

Forest Ozburn over Cole Smith (Nolensville), (Dec 17-10).

Forest Ozburn over Bradley Bullock (Eagleville), (Fall 3:26).

Gabriel Pennington (Eagleville) over Forest Ozburn, (Fall 1:44).

Paxton Albright (Sequatchie) over Forest Ozburn, (Fall 0:51).

Kale Albritton (Signal Mountain) over Forest Ozburn, (Fall 0:48).

138

Carson Blackwell (Forrest, Sr., 21-8)-First Place

Carson Blackwell over Eian Saltsman (Sequatchie), (TF 18-2 3:09).

Carson Blackwell over Orion Wilson (Sequatchie), (Fall 1:19).

Carson Blackwell over Richard Shipley (Signal Mountain), (Dec 5-2).

Carson Blackwell over Cooper Horton (Whitwell), (Fall 4:35).

Carson Blackwell over Erik Johnson (Eagleville), (Fall 5:23).

145

Hunter Pendley (Forrest, Jr., 17-11)-Sixth Place

Hunter Pendley over Derrick Cherry (Watertown). (Fall 0:47).

Jacob Franklin (Watertown) over Hunter Pendley, (TB-1 9-7).

Hunter Pendley over Titus Moschkau (East Ridge), (Fall 4:33).

Hunter Pendley over Dylan Pratt (Eagleville), (Fall 2:19).

Sean Allen (Nolensville) over Hunter Pendley, (Dec 3-1).

152

Sean Paul Febus (Forrest, 8th-grade, 6-18)-11th Place

Elijah Arnold (Cascade) over Sean Paul Febus, (Fall 1:49).

Matthew Garber (Eagleville) over Sean Paul Febus, (Fall 1:24).

Julian Causey (Red Bank) over Sean Paul Febus, (Fall 2:36).

Sean Paul Febus over Omar Mitchell (East Nashville Magnet School), (For.).

170

Nick McClendon (Forrest, Sr., 12-1)-First Place

Nick McClendon over Bailey Johnson (Marshall Co.), (Fall 0:56).

Nick McClendon over Colton Haun (Marshall Co.), (Fall 0:51).

Nick McClendon over Joshua Bryant (Nolensville), (Fall 0:44).

Nick McClendon over Donevin Darnell (Eagleville), (Fall 1:04).

Nick McClendon over Avery Mayberry (Tennessee School for the Blind), (Fall 0:49).

182

Noah Hill (Forrest, Jr., 25-2)-First Place

Noah Hill (Forrest) over Pearson Lindsay (Signal Mountain), (Fall 1:43).

Noah Hill (Forrest) over Lloyd Pinheiro (East Ridge) (Fall 2:51).

Noah Hill (Forrest) over Nathan Berry (Watertown), (Fall 2:55).

Noah Hill (Forrest) over Jason Dennis (Eagleville), (Dec 7-2).

Nolensville 64, Forrest 17

Thursday, January 16

Forrest High School

120-Pounds- Braiden Vanderploeg over Chris Battle (Nolensville), Fall, 1:10.

126-Riley Lippincott (Nolensville), Forfeit.

132-Cole Smith (Nolensville) over Forest Ozburn, Fall, 1:34.

138-Kayden Walker (Nolensville) over Asa Nance, Fall, 1:27.

145-Jacob Vogelpohl (Nolensville) over Carson Blackwell, Technical Fall (17-1), 4:00.

152-Sean Allen (Nolensville) over Hunter Pendley, Fall, 4:57.

160-Gavin Channell (Nolensville) over Sean Paul Febus, 1:17.

170-Alex Rhodes (Nolensville), Forfeit.

182-Noah Hill over Nathan Montpool (Nolensville), Technical Fall, (21-6), 6:00.

195-McKinley Wagoner (Nolensville), Forfeit.

220-Bailey Black (Nolensville), Forfeit.

285-Parker Short (Nolensville), Forfeit.

106-Cole Dorsett (Nolensville) over Layne Bowman, Technical Fall, (15-0), 4:40.

113-Seth McCoy over Aiden O’Neal (Nolensville), Fall, 0:45.