FRANKLIN, Tenn. – For the first time since 2006, McCallie has reached the Tennessee state duals championship round.
The Blue Tornado will wrestle defending Division II champion Father Ryan at 8 EST tonight at the Williamson County Agricultural Expo.
They got there by winning the last two matches of their semifinal against Christian Brothers for a 31-24 decision.
“Holy cow!” exclaimed delighted McCallie coach Mike Newman. “You put pen to paper and try to plan out how it’s going to go, and then it works out like this. There you go. But we got great team effort and there was great support among the guys for each other.”
Father Ryan reached the final with a 37-28 victory over Baylor, which had been in the finals with the Purple Irish the past three seasons.
Baylor will wrestle in the consolation semifinals against the Brentwood Academy/BGA winner at 2 p.m.
This is the first time since 2014 that the Chattanooga area has failed to put a team in the Class A/AA finals.
In what was thought to be a finals-type match in most any other year, Hixson got swamped by Greenville 43-24 in the opening round. Notre Dame won its first-round meet, nipping Stratford on a last-match win, but then fell to Pigeon Forge 40-30. With the win, Pigeon Forge secured its seventh consecutive championship meet, which will be against Greeneville.
Meanwhile in Class AAA, Cleveland and defending champion Bradley Central moved a step closer to an anticipated third 2016-17 meeting.
The Blue Raiders walked over Maryville 68-6 and forfeited the last three weight classes to beat Summit 41-34. Bradley, in the other half of the Class AAA bracket, had a semi-tough opener against Knoxville Halls (37-30) but coach Ben Smith also had at least two reserves in the lineup. In their second match Friday, the Bears, again with reserves dotting the lineup, posted a 65-9 victory.
Standing between the two meeting again – Cleveland won by a single point in each of the regular-season clashes – are semifinal opponents Science Hill for the Blue Raiders and Tennessee High for Bradley.
Science Hill advanced with a narrow win over Wilson Central while Tennessee High survived a pair of rip-roaring dogfights – against Mount Juliet (38-35) and Independence (41-37).
McCallie was down two headed into the last two matches, but the Blue Tornado had a pair of veterans waiting in the wings. Thomas Sell put them up by a point with a 145-pound decision, and Lee Dendy sealed the win with an exclamation point, pinning Eric Hodges in just 35 seconds.
Another pivotal match happened about midway through the bout when Walker Robinson rallied for a 4-3 victory.
Notre Dame got outmanned by Pigeon Forge.
“It’s about filling the roster,” Irish coach Rocco Mansueto said, “but we got beat by a more seasoned team. I have to remind myself that seven of our 13 starters are first- or second-year wrestlers.”
Pigeon Forge coach Greg Foreman had said in pre-tournament conversations that his team could fall out of the medals or win it all because of the balance in the A/AA field.
“We are taking it one match at a time, and Page was first on our minds this afternoon,” he said. “But Rocco is doing an awesome job with Notre Dame. That team has improved by leaps and bounds. Their only deficit is not enough bullets in the gun.”
Cleveland wasn’t worried about the final score against Summit once the meet’s outcome was decided.
“At that point it’s get by – make it happen – and it doesn’t matter how it looks,” Blue Raiders coach Josh Bosken said.
Smith was liberal dotting his lineup, but he’s being extra careful with a handful of starters.
“We got what we needed and wanted. Halls was a tough first-round match and, yes, we did wrestle more second-teamers against Heritage,” he said. “But what we need right now is a good night’s rest.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.