There once again is no Region 4-AAA wrestling duals championship. The two teams that will advance had been decided already Thursday, and their goals for this week had been attained.
Bradley Central and Soddy-Daisy will represent the Chattanooga area in next weekend's Division I-AAA duals.
Bradley's Bears strolled past Walker Valley 44-21, forfeiting the final four matches, and Soddy-Daisy, District 8 runner-up to Bradley, outlasted District 7 champion Cleveland 39-26.
"Biggest thing for us is that we're injury-free," Bears coach Ben Smith said. "(Soddy-Daisy) had one injury to a key guy, so I think the wisest thing for everybody is to get ready for next week - not show your cards and keep everybody safe."
Soddy-Daisy, which lost to Bradley earlier this week in the district championship match, elected not to wrestle for the region title.
"Honestly, I left it up to my kids and not a single one wanted to back down. It's nothing like that," Soddy-Daisy coach Jim Higgins said. "I'm always competitive and was ready to go. I let the captains speak up and I heard some wise words - valid points that I don't care to share - and everyone was behind (it), so that's the way we went."
"Obviously we don't want to think we're done yet, but you have to get there to be in the hunt, and I'm very proud of that."
Smith was happy for Soddy-Daisy for a couple of reasons, including the official ceremony naming the Soddy-Daisy Wrestling Arena and adjoining soccer field in Henry's honor.
"Congratulations to Coach Higgins and Soddy-Daisy," Smith said. "It's got to be a good feeling for him, and doing it on a night when they named the arena after Steve Henry has to be special because Coach Henry is a great individual. If I could have wrestled for anybody other than Steve Logsdon it would've been Steve Henry."
The Bears coaching staff had a few anxious moments as they watched the last few matches between Cleveland and Soddy-Daisy.
"We were over there strategizing for Cleveland because their lineup is more flexible against us than Soddy-Daisy," Smith explained. "Then the 182 match was just huge and I saw the momentum shift. I got to thinking that since they were hot that they might just come after us."
Key back-to-back maximum-point wins for Soddy-Daisy came from Tucker Russo, who bumped up a class to 170, and Ty Boeck. Russo pinned his opponent in 4:45, and Boeck came from behind to pin his man in the second period.
"We expected bonus points from Tucker although he had bumped up and was hobbling a little. Ty started a little slow - he was behind - but he reminded everybody that he can wrestle," Higgins said.
The Trojans nailed down the point of no return for the Blue Raiders when reserve heavyweight Owen Vice, filling in for still-sick Trace McNew, posted a 2-0 decision that gave his team an insurmountable 37-26 advantage.
"I'm really proud of that kid. He's a football guy who'd wrestled before but took last year off to focus on football," Higgins said of Vice. "I'm not sure that was a bad thing because football is his first love, but we're very glad to have gotten him back out, and I'm very happy for him to experience that."
This is the first time for Cleveland to miss the state duals in four years, but the last time it happened, 2011, the Blue Raiders rebounded to win the traditional state championship.
"We're not done. We're not folding it up," Cleveland coach Jake Yost said. "I thought we had made some progress and I thought we got the matchups that we wanted and the effort was good. It just wasn't quite enough. They fought as hard as us, maybe a little harder. It's very tough to qualify for the state duals out of this region."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.