The mats that represented state duals trips were side by side, but they might as well have been on opposite ends of town. The winners found themselves taking distinctly different paths.
While Bradley Central was cruising past Walker Valley in the Region 4-AAA duals semifinals, Cleveland hit several potholes before finally securing a victory over host Ooltewah.
Bradley (14-0) will defend its state duals title next weekend in Franklin after beating the depleted Mustangs 62-15, and Cleveland will be among the Bears’ challengers following a 40-21 victory over the Owls.
The state tournament, which has moved from Clarksville, will be held at the Williamson County Agricultural Expo next Friday and Saturday.
“I thought we looked sharp,” Bradley coach Steve Logsdon said. “Even the couple of junior varsity guys we had in there wrestled hard. You worry this time of year about getting somebody hurt. That is what you guard against.
“I told our guys that in every match we want to go out and wrestle the same, and that’s what I saw tonight.”
Logsdon held out a quartet of usual starters: Ethan Hames, who is in the process of dropping to 119; Tyler Schuch (130), Trevor Herron (135) and Bradley Colbaugh (140).
Even without the four, three of them returning state medalists, Bradley made its victory march look easy. The Mustangs, who have been decimated by both sickness and injury, were without mainstays Isaiah Simpson (215) and Dylan Mills (285).
Ooltewah threw everything but spare rolls of mat tape at Cleveland, which didn’t punch its state ticket until the 13th of the 14 matches on a 5-1 victory by a bumped-up Marvin Lopez at 135 pounds.
“Our guys have had a little chip on their shoulders because they didn’t feel people across the state were giving us our due,” Owls coach Wendell Weathers said. “The kids worked all year for this match and we put it all out there. We didn’t come in to wrestle and go home. Every one of them went out there to fight.”
The anticipated battle between the Owls’ Tyler Toon and Cleveland’s Chip Norwood failed to materialize. Cleveland coach Eric Phillips, looking for better matchups, bumped Norwood to 215 with hopes of winning at both of the upper weights. The plan backfired somewhat because Ooltewah’s Jay Rudwall decisioned Jesse Jones 5-3 to keep the Owls in front at that juncture, 18-14.
“I was looking for the best matches for us. I wanted to keep our more experienced guys on their more experienced guys,” Phillips said. “As it turns out, it was pretty much a wash because Toon and Norwood both won.”
Phillips juggled several other weights afterward to try to overtake the Owls. Those worked.
“I knew they got two guys hurt, and I felt if both of us were shuffling cards that we had a few more to shuffle,” he said. “If we didn’t respect Ooltewah, I wouldn’t have juggled. I just wanted to get on the road to Franklin.
“Ooltewah wasn’t going to just bow out. That’s a program with a lot of pride. Where they might have been expected to lose they wrestled hard to keep it close, and where they were expected to win they really got after it.”