They haven't crowned the individual champions and there's still plenty of state berths still up for grabs in the consolation rounds, but the Region 4 wrestling tournament is all but over as far as the team title is concerned.

Defending champ Soddy Daisy, which won a AAA State Duals title last Saturday night, racked up 227 points through the championship semis and two rounds of consolations in their own gym Friday night and placed 10 wrestlers in Saturday's championship finals.

The Central Purple Pounders, who also won a A-AA State Duals last weekend, was a distant second with 116.

5 points while Notre Dame is a close third with 107.5.  Both have four in the championship finals.

Hixson and East Ridge complete the top five teams with 92 and 84 points, respectively.

Soddy Daisy coach Steve Henry wasn't real impressed with the way his team wrestled against Cleveland in the Duals final, but he got their attention on Monday and Tuesday with two of the toughest workouts of the season.

Apparently, the plan worked as Soddy Daisy was on target for most of the night as they still have all 14 individuals on target for a berth in next week's traditional state, which will be held at the Williamson County Ag Expo Center.

"I'm pretty sure that we won more than we lost and I think all of my guys are still alive with a chance to advance next week," Henry said after a late consolation match had concluded.

"We got a lot of pins tonight as we were a lot more intense.  We really got after them on Monday and Tuesday.  Alex Seeley looked good at 285 and I was real proud of Austin Houser at 106.  He was unseeded and faced the number-one seed in the quarters.  The other guy made a mistake, so I was glad that Austin was there to take advantage," he added.

Ashley Brooks has been in the wrestling coaching business for 30 years and has been Henry's assistant for the past 13.  He too was pretty pleased with the way the Trojans performed.

"You'd think we did pretty well with 10 in the finals, but there were still some spots where we could have wrestled better.  Overall, we did okay as we have a chance to take all 14 to the state.  We still need to do well tomorrow for positioning next week," Brooks added.

In addition to Houser at 106, other Soddy Daisy finalists include Jacob Stevens at 120, Josh Deckelman at 126, Campbell Lewis at 132, Gage Richmond at 138 and Turbo Smith at 145.  The others include Blaike Henry at 170, Brett Ervin at 182, Billy Swanson at 220 and Alex Seeley at 285.

Central coach Marquis Dotson knows that the region tournament is a gut check for everyone involved.

"There have been some ups and downs as we lost some matches in the semis that could have gone either way.  The region is always tough as nobody wants to go home.  We still have 12 out of 13 alive, so we just have to keep fighting," Dotson explained.

Those four Purple Pounders in the finals include Cody Bowman at 106, Logan Griffith at 138, Larry Dickerson at 152 and Trumond Martin at 195.

Notre Dame coach John Mullin was pleasantly surprised to hear the team scores with his Irish in the fight for second place.

"We're out of bullets until the finals tomorrow, but it's nice to know we have four who are wrestling for region titles.  We just missed a fifth at 113.  We're just hoping that we can punch a few more tickets to the state tomorrow during the consolation rounds," Mullin added.

Notre Dame's four finalists include Packy Mullin at 120, Jack Boone at 126, Chase White at 132 and Grayson Mullin at 145.

East Ridge, Red Bank and Hixson all have two finalists while Tyner, Ooltewah, Signal Mountain and Silverdale all have one apiece.

Brandon Whitley (113) and Brandon Cantrell (182) are the two for East Ridge while Logan Sharp (152) and Zac Sharp (160) will represent Red Bank.  Hixson's two include Justiin Mathieson at 160 and Christian Varner at 220.

Tyner's DeAngelo James is set at 113 and is the only undefeated wrestler in the tournament.  Matt Sealor will battle at 170 for Ooltewah while Signal Mountain has Tyler Montgomery at 195 and Silverdale has Josh Mackey at 285.

As you might expect, there were a few upsets along the way, including a pair of top seeds, one second, one third and five fourths.

Soddy Daisy's Houser earned the first one when he scored a 12-9 decision over Red Bank's Chris Palacio at 106 while Red Bank's Paul Horne had a big upset when he stunned Ooltewah's Jay Rudwall at 220.

Rudwall entered the tournament with a record of 27-1 and won his first match with a second-period pin before Horne pulled the shocker with a pin in the first period.

Central's Sam Sledge, seeded second at 182, lost a 6-5 heartbreaker to East Ridge's Cantrell in the semifinals.

Howard's Ladarius Griffith was a third seed who lost at 195 while the fourth seeds who lost included Trent Walliser of Chattanooga Christian at 106, Central's Bryson Lemons at 113, Brainerd's Maleek Rooks at 160, Signal Mountain's Harrison Hall at 182 and Jacob Metzger of Sequatchie County at 195.

There were a lot of pins in the championship rounds, including 25 in the first minute.

None were any faster than Soddy Daisy's Seeley, who won his first match in eight seconds before taking just 13 to win his quarterfinal match.  He earned the third pin of the night in the semifinals in 1:41.

Soddy Daisy's Stevens had one in 13 seconds while East Ridge's Taylor Whitley had one in 16.   Silverdale's Mackey won his quarterfinal match in 18 seconds while Tyner's James needed just 20 seconds to prevail in the quarters.

Saturday's action begins with consolation rounds at 10 a.m. and will be followed by the championship finals somewhere around 12:30 or 1.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@comcast.net)