The Soddy Daisy Trojans have been a dominant force in state wrestling circles for the past couple of months.
They celebrated an unbeaten regular season last Saturday night with the Class A state duals title in Franklin and that domination continued on Saturday at Soddy Daisy in the Region 4-A tournament.
Advancing 13 of 14 individuals to the championship round and having lost but one match to that point on the day, the Trojans totally overwhelmed the 12-team field as they finished the one-day tournament with 296.5 points and advancing all 14 individuals to next week’s Sectional tournament, which will be held at Loudon High School on Saturday.
The top four finishers in each weight class at the Region event advance to next weekend’s event with the top four from that tournament qualifying for the state tournament, which will be held in Franklin on Feb. 23-24.
Soddy Daisy coach Ulric Winesburgh just had to sit back and watch the show his team put on as they had another almost-perfect day on the mat.
“I thought we looked good for the most part as this is the first step toward qualifying for the state tournament,” Winesburgh said while Soddy Daisy wrestlers were rolling up the last mat.
“That was a good win for Luke Myhan at 106 as he evened the score with the Signal Mountain kid and totally followed the game plan we had set out for him. And I thought we closed the gap a little at 175, but overall, we had 13 in the finals with 10 champions, so I’m really happy about that.
“We still have some work to do cleaning up little things, but I feel like we’re peaking at the right time,” the bearded coach concluded with a smile.
While the Trojans totally ran away with that first-place award, the Signal Mountain Eagles were a distant second as they finished with 203.5 points and three champs.
Red Bank, East Ridge and Hixson followed in the top five with 112, 97 and 83 points, respectively.
Signal Mountain coach Houston Clement felt like his guys wrestled about as well as possible, but there was nothing they could do about Soddy Daisy’s dominating performance.
“We set a school record today with eight in the finals and still got beat by a lot,” he said while talking with friends following the last match.
“I thought we wrestled well and got 11 through to next week, so I can’t complain about that. We just have to improve on the little stuff, but we’re doing all that we can. It’s just that Soddy Daisy is really good,” Clement added.
The champions for Soddy Daisy included Myhan at 106, Ayden Jenkins at 113, Zander Duncan at 126, Drew Lewis at 138, Boogie Cosper at 144 and Elijah Turner at 157 while Tucker Ross (165), Nathan Wade (175), Pete Laxton (215) and Jonathan Davis (285) were all winners as well.
Signal Mountain’s three winners included the Uhorchuk brothers – JoJo at 120 and Ethan at 132 – while Jackson Davis was the winner at 175 pounds. The only other champion was Whitwell’s Wyatt Davis at 150.
There were seven regular decisions in the final round with two major decisions, two technical falls and two pins. Soddy Daisy’s Duncan was a winner by forfeit at 126.
Both pins came in the last two matches where Soddy Daisy’s Laxton won in 31 seconds at 215 while Davis was almost as quick with a 58-second fall at 285.
LEGEND AND FINAL TEAM SCORES: 1. Soddy Daisy (SD) 296.5; 2. Signal Mountain (SM) 203.5; 3. Red Bank (RB) 112; 4. East Ridge (ER) 97; 5. Hixson (Hix) 83; 6. Sequatchie County (Seq) 62; 7. Marion County (Mar) 53.5; 8. Whitwell (Whit) 50; 9. Chattanooga Central (CCen) 42; 10. Tyner (Ty) 23; 11. Sale Creek (SC) 18; 12. Brainerd (Brain) 0.
CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS
106 – Luke Myhan (SD) dec. Luke Higdon, 3-1;
113 – Ayden Jenkins (SD) dec. Christian Davis (SM), 6-0;
120 – JoJo Uhorchuk (SM) major dec. Tyson Flavin (SD), 16-2;
126 – Zander Duncan (SD) won by forfeit over Atheus Younes (Seq);
132 – Ethan Uhorchuk (SM) won by technical fall over Nathan Moungsiharat (SD), 5:10;
138 – Drew Lewis (SD) major dec. Jackson Patrick (SM), 10-1;
144 – Boogie Cosper (SD) won by technical fall over Eben Shriner (SM), 5:09;
150 – Wyatt Davis (Whit) dec. Malachi Stephenson (RB), 9-2;
157 – Elijah Turner (SD) dec. Mason Lillard (SM), 8-1;
165 – Tucker Ross (SD) dec. Trevor Burney (CCen), 6-4;
175 – Jackson Davis (SM) dec. Logan Rawlinson (SD), 7-5;
190 – Nathan Wade (SD) dec. Caleb Conn (ER), 1-0;
215 – Pete Laxton (SD) pinned Adam Billingsley (Hix), :31;
285 – Jonathan Davis (SD) pinned Matthew Fowler (RB), :58.
CONSOLATION FINALS FOR THIRD PLACE
106 – Kambron Blackburn (RB) dec. Mainor Baltazar-Juarez (ER), 13-12;
113 – Mason Shrum (Mar) dec. Kamaron Pritchett (ER), 5-0;
120 – Henry Varner (RB) pinned Jonah Gibson (ER), 2:28;
126 – Tylan Moschau (ER) major dec. Oliver Green (SM), 10-2;
132 – Timothy Younes (Seq) pinned Braden Brown (RB), :31;
138 – Dublin McGonagil (RB) dec. Kameron Parks (ER), 1-0;
144 – James Owens (RB) dec. Wesley Levan (Whit), 13-8;
150 – Jesse Fowler (CCen) pinned Colin Bull (SD), :36;
157 – Ian Von Loh (Hix) pinned Carter Womack (Mar), 5:11;
165 – Josh Ramirez (Mar) pinned Robinson McGee (SM), 3:52;
175 – Justin Ellis (ER) pinned Josiah Sitton (Ty), 1:49;
190 – Carson Burkholder (SM) pinned Hunter Smith (Hix), 2:12;
215 – Micah Hardaway (RB) pinned Jamariel Ballard (Ty), 2:03;
285 – Braden Jenkins (Hix) pinned William Abbott (Seq), :21.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)