The Cleveland Lady Raiders wrestling team made the most of the first-ever girls wrestling event held in Jim Smiddy Arena Thursday with a dominating 54-15 win over the Bradley Central Bearettes.
The Lady Raiders wrestled to nine pins including a record setting pin by state tournament runner-up Kemoria Turner, who took just seven seconds to put six points on the board for Cleveland. Defending state champion Piper Fowler was almost as good pinning her opponent in only nine seconds.
Makya Parker (107 pounds), Olivia Collins (114), Jakyra Parker (132), Serenity McGlade (138), Bella Harris (152), JayLee Garcia (165) and Diamond Young (235) all earned six point victories for Cleveland.
All of the pin victories for the Lady Raiders came in less than a minute.
“I think the biggest thing is, they are making wrestling important for other girls. They are putting on a show, they wrestled hard, they are doing big moves. They are excited to be out there,” said Lady Raiders head coach Josh Bosken. “This is just one step in the right direction to grow the sport in Tennessee. I'm happy they are doing that.”
Bradley Central's Nataliegh Shane (120) earned the lone pin for Bradley. Mylee Goodwin (100) wrestled to a 7-2 decision for the Bearettes and Gabriella Rincon received a forfeit at 126.
“Am I upset we lost? Yeah everyone wants to win. But, everyone but three girls have never wrestled before. For most of them, their first day wrestling was Oct. 31. I'm proud of them. They showed up. They don't care who's in front of them they are going to fight and wrestle whoever it is,” said Bearettes coach McKenzie Bacick-Beyer. “I'm proud of them for that, but I think we could have had a little more fight and maybe made matches a little bit closer and not have them end so quickly. Win or lose I am going to be proud of them, but we just need to fight.”
The Bearettes will return to the mat in tournament wrestling at Stone Memorial Saturday.
The Lady Raiders will participate in the Cleveland Duals Saturday.
“I am pleased, but on thing in the back of my mind is the matches we lost. We've got to fix those because they are matches we can win,” said Boskin. “We're going to get back tomorrow and wrestle some matches on Saturday and get ready for a big weekend next weekend. Saturday is the Cleveland duals. Some of the teams are bringing some girls in. We won't wrestle a lot, but we'll get a few matches in.”