Andrew Hendricks overcame a knee injury he aggravated at the region tournament to finish in fifth place Saturday at the KHSAA State Wrestling First Round at J.M. Atherton High School in Louisville.
The Trigg County senior will advance to next weekend’s championships in Winchester.
Hendricks avenged his region losses with a 4-2 record Saturday, going undefeated against Region I competition.
State First Round comprises the top four wrestlers in each class in Regions 1-4.
Hendricks, the No. 13 ranked wrestler in the 285-pound class according to KentuckyWrestling.com, opened his day with a pin of No. 14 Jake Heady of LaRue County in 34 seconds.
He dropped his second match to No. 6 Colton Lewis of Pleasure Ridge Park.
In the consolation round, Hendricks came back to defeat Daviess County’s Koyln Cruz (No. 18). Hendricks was forced to forfeit his region match to Cruz last week because of his injured knee.
Hendricks then scored a pin of McCracken County’s Frankie Nutt (No. 11), the wrestler who handed him his first loss at the region tournament.
Oldham County’s Joe Scarborough (No. 8) defeated Hendricks in the consolation semifinal. He was able to take fifth place with a forfeit.
As the fifth-place finisher, Hendricks will face the fourth-place finish from the other semi-state – No. 4 Willie Rodriguez of Covington Catholic – in the first round next week at George Rogers Clark High School.
