Undefeated Soddy Daisy Wrestlers Roll Past Improved Ooltewah

Top-Ranked Cleveland Stays Unbeaten With Big Win At East Hamilton

  • Thursday, December 14, 2017
  • John Hunt
Soddy Daisy’s Jacob Pratt works for a pin over Ooltewah’s Gavin Howington at 126.
Soddy Daisy’s Jacob Pratt works for a pin over Ooltewah’s Gavin Howington at 126.
photo by M. A. Locke

Wrestling is one of those sports where peaking is a process.  All coaches hope their guys reach their full potential in February when the post-season tournaments take place.

So it’s hard to really put a finger on who’s who and what’s what in mid December, but the Soddy Daisy Trojans are headed in the right direction and the Ooltewah Owls are making wonderful progress as well.

These two teams squared off at Ooltewah’s Theresa Harvey Gymnasium Thursday night and the visiting Trojans remained unbeaten after seven dual meets with the 62-10 victory.

And while the match was pretty lopsided from beginning to end, you would have never known it by talking to Ooltewah’s second-year coach J.D. Dunbar.

“Soddy Daisy is always a physical, grinding team that’s well-coached and does the little stuff well,” Dunbar said following Thursday’s match.

“They shut us out last year and I was in my car heading home by 7:30, but I thought we did a great job of battling tonight.  We gave up several technical falls, but that’s better than getting pinned.  At least this year we’re going the full six minutes and that’s a huge step forward.

“Our practices have been going well.  What I really wanted to see tonight was us be able to implement some of the things we’ve been working on in practice.  We’re making progress.  We’re going to the Bradley Invitational this weekend.  Last year, we were finished by 10 o’clock on Saturday morning.  Our goal is still be alive and competing later than that,” Dunbar smiled.

The Trojans were really never tested against the Owls as Soddy Daisy won the first five matches and had a 25-0 lead before Mykkel Banks posted a 10-2 major decision at 145 pounds.  Marek Banks got a forfeit for the Owls in the next match before Soddy Daisy finished the evening with seven straight wins.

Cole Prestwood and Jacob Pratt both had first-period pins while Ty Boeck had a second-period pin at 220.

Trey Vincent, Hayden Maynor and Bailey Faires all had technical falls for the Trojans while Briston Hatfield and Addison Roberts both won with major decisions.

Kesean Eubanks had an 11-5 regular decision at 138 while Dayton Griffith, Jacob Allen and Brent Settles all received forfeits.

Soddy Daisy coach Jim Higgins knows the season is still young and his team is still trying to put all the pieces in the right place, but he liked the effort he saw on the road Thursday night.

“It’s still mid-December and we wrestled like it, but the effort was there and that’s what makes me the most happy.  We just stressed to our guys that we wanted to go hard from whistle to whistle and to get as many bonus points as possible,” Higgins expressed afterward.

“We just wanted to see some of the things we’ve been working on show up in a match and we did that in places.  We’re looking forward to a big challenge this weekend in the McCallie tournament.  It’s still December, but I’m confident we’ll get there before the end,” he concluded.

TOP-RANKED CLEVELAND remained unbeaten with a commanding 63-6 victory at East Hamilton Thursday night as the Blue Raiders had six pins along the way.

Jayce Mullin, Logan Whiteside, Austin Sweeney, Zach Brezna, Jack Hicks and Logan Strickland all had pins while Burns Meagher had a technical fall and Trae McDaniel a major decision.

James Howard had the only win for the Hurricanes with a second-period pin at 285.

SODDY DAISY 62, OOLTEWAH 10

(Match Began at 113 Pounds)

106 – Dayton Griffith (SD) won by forfeit;

113 – Jacob Allen (SD) won by forfeit;

120 – Cole Prestwood (SD) pinned Bryson Cain, :50;

126 – Jacob Pratt (SD) pinned Gavin Howington, 1:30;

132 – Briston Hatfield (SD) major dec. Alexander Wright, 8-0;

138 – Kesean Eubanks (SD) dec. Justice McClure, 11-5;

145 – Mykkel Banks (O) major dec. Landon Lewis, 10-2;

152 – Marek Banks (O) won by forfeit;

160 – Trey Vincent (SD) won by technical fall over Jordan Davis, 2:45;

170 – Hayden Maynor (SD) won by technical fall over Francisco Gallardo, 4:55;

182 – Bailey Faires (SD) won by technical fall over Justic Cruz, 6:00;

195 – Brent Settles (SD) won by forfeit;

220 – Ty Boeck (SD) pinned Blake Wright, 2:51;

285 – Addison Roberts (SD) major dec. Kevin Chang, 17-4.

CLEVELAND 63, EAST HAMILTON 6

(Match Began At 126 Pounds)

106 – Trae McDaniel (Cl) major dec. Ethan Saxon, 14-4;

113 – Trevor Wilson (Cl) won by forfeit;

120 – Burns Meagher (Cl) won by technical fall over Christopher Roberson, 5:58;

126 – Garrett Stevenson (Cl) dec. Seth Carpenter, 3-0;

132 – Jayce Mullin (Cl) pinned Samuel Malone, 1:04;

138 – Logan Whiteside (Cl) pinned Joshua Chisenall, :50;

145 – Cody Mathews (Cl) dec. Cade Meeks, 7-6;

152 – Double forfeit;

160 – Austin Sweeney (Cl) pinned Dentre Johnson, :10;

170 – Zach Brezna (Cl) pinned Aden Sternberg, :32;

182 – Jack Hicks (Cl) pinned Jason Brumlow, :03;

195 – Logan Strickland (Cl) pinned Aiden Holt, :52;

220 – Wilson Benefield (Cl) won by forfeit;

285 – James Howard (EH) pinned Christian Higgins, 2:27.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
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