Soddy-Daisy gained eight semifinal berths and Ooltewah got seven, but the teams often stuck with second-class status made their share of waves in the first night of the Region 4 high school wrestling tournament at Red Bank.
Fifteen of the 16 teams qualified at least one wrestler Thursday for this evening’s championship semifinals, including Red Bank with eight and East Ridge with and six.
Class A/AA duals champion Hixson, which lost 119-pound Logan Vandergriff before the tournament, managed just six in the semis and A/AA state duals competitor Central has just four. Tyner, Signal Mountain and Silverdale Baptist got three each.
“There is more diversity than we have been used to,” said Soddy-Daisy coach Steve Henry, referring to the TSSAA’s redistribution of teams for this season. “It just adds to the legitimacy of our region, and it shows how much hard work some of those teams have put in.”
Among the teams that moved in were Central, Tyner and Silverdale from the other southeastern Tennessee region that included Bradley Central, Cleveland, Walker Valley, McMinn Central, McMinn County and Rhea Count. Those teams are still in Region 3 but were combined with teams from Maryville and south Knoxville. Their tournament starts today in Alcoa with championship finals scheduled at 3 p.m. Saturday.
Soddy-Daisy led first-day scoring with 73 points to 58 for Ooltewah, 45 for Hixson, 43 for Red Bank and 34 for Central.
“We lost a couple of close matches I felt we could have had,” Henry said.
It was hard to be greedy, however, when he watched the showings from Red Bank, Tyner and East Ridge.
“We did about what I expected, really,” Red Bank coach Ben Reichel said. “We lost one I thought would have a chance of placing, but we gained one elsewhere I was really happy about.”
East Ridge hasn’t had such a good showing since 2000, when the Pioneers qualified all 14 of their wrestlers for the state. They came in with seven wrestlers and put six in the semis.
“To know what we accomplished is great, but the goal is to put them in the state tournament,” Pioneers coach Brad Jackson said. “If we don’t wrestle well tomorrow, it will be one great day of wrestling rather than two great days.”
The Pioneers upset three seeded wrestlers along the way.
The showing was similar for Tyner, which hasn’t had three semifinalists in years.
“I know it’s been a long time,” Rams coach Wayne Turner said. “We have a bunch of young kids who have come together and done a lot of good things. I’m really proud of them.”
The tournament resumes at 5 p.m. with the championship semifinals followed by consolation rounds. The championship and consolation finals should begin about 7:30.