Soddy-Daisy’s Billy Swanson controls Christian Brother’s Phillip Nichols in the 220-pound class. Swanson pinned Nichols in the finals of the Cleveland Duals held at Cleveland High School.CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Christian Brothers had to go through four opponents to get a second shot, but the Purple Wave did it and managed to turn the tables on Soddy-Daisy to win the Cleveland Duals wrestling championship Saturday.
In Friday’s battle of the state’s top-ranked teams, No. 1 Soddy-Daisy was the victor. Saturday with a trophy on the line, No. 2 Christian Brothers pulled out a 31-27 win.
Purple Wave coach Chris Lewis is among coaches who vote in the state’s prep wrestling poll, and he had mixed emotions on whom he would vote No. 1.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think on any given day when we wrestle it could be a different outcome. They had a huge semifinal match against [Marietta] Pope, but then we had Cleveland in our semifinal. If we wrestled tomorrow it could be a completely different outcome.”
The major differences came at 145 pounds when the Wave’s Kaleb Baker provided a nine-point swing by reversing a Friday loss by decision to Turbo Smith with a pin and at 170 pounds where Barrett Walthall avenged a loss by decision to Blaike Henry.