For 26 high school wrestlers from the Chattanooga area, the dream of winning an individual TSSAA state championship still remains.
On Thursday at the Williamson County Ag Expo Center in Franklin, the state traditional tournaments for Class A, Class AA and girls’ competition got underway, and the area was once again well represented in what has been a dominant sport for the Scenic City and its surrounding region.
In search of their 10th consecutive team state title – including both duals and traditional championships – the Cleveland Blue Raiders advanced an area-best seven wrestlers to Friday’s state semifinals round, which starts at 1 p.m. Eastern. Those semifinalists are Chase Walker (106 pounds), Bentley Ellison (120), Logan Fowler (126), Arlo Laxton (132), Lucas Szymborski (160), Tetoe Boyd (195) and Ashton Davis (285).
At the end of the first of three days in Franklin, coach Joey Knox’s Blue Raiders led the Class AA field with a commanding 75 points, with Wilson Central (57.5) and Cleveland rival Bradley Central (56.5) duking it out for second.
Bradley Central has five state semifinalists – Bryson Terrell (113), Easton Lipsey (126), Ethan Lipsy (138), Luke Belcher (145) and Austin McClure (285) – while Signal Mountain advanced four to the same round in Class A. The Eagles’ semifinalists are Jojo Uhorchuk (106), Ethan Uhorchuk (113), Caleb Uhorchuk (120) and Noah Shriner (126).