In the summer prior to his sophomore season at McCallie school, Judah Duhm edged onto the national wrestling scene. Wrestling with Team Tennessee in Oklahoma in the national duals, he posted an 8-2 record.
Injuries, though, pushed him back to the periphery and there he remained until last spring. Duhm’s return to national prominence didn’t result from a 39-0 junior-season record or the championship medal from the 2016 Tennessee state tournament because they carry little weight beyond the state. It was instead a fifth-place finish at the national prep tournament.
The result is recruiting conversations with Navy, Army, Stanford and Virginia and interest from several others including the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and Cal-Poly, now coached by former UTC assistant Jon Sioredas.
Duhm won the 182-pound title in the McCallie Invitational, which finished Saturday afternoon, and the host Blue Tornado finished third in the team standings with 208 points. Union Grove was first with 235, and Woodland was second with 209.5. The other Chattanooga-area teams in the top 10 were Soddy-Daisy (sixth, 135) and Heritage (10th, 112.5).
Previously home-schooled, Duhm acknowledges that he learned discipline, focus and resolve after enrolling at McCallie as an eighth-grader.