CLEVELAND, Tenn. – The Cleveland Blue Raiders are the defending state duals and traditional state tournament wrestling champions and they wrestled like it Saturday at their own spacious Raider Arena.
Facing the unbeaten North Hall Trojans in the championship match of the Al Miller Cleveland Duals, the host Blue Raiders gave up a 5-1 decision in the opening match at 145 pounds before four straight and seven of the next nine to post a 36-21 victory over a team from Gainesville, Ga. that was the Georgia Class AAA state runner-up last year.
Cleveland had beaten Gilmer County by a 44-24 final in one semifinal while the Trojans beat Father Ryan by a 38-28 final in the other. All four of those teams won their respective pools with perfect 3-0 records.
Gilmer beat Father Ryan 39-29 for the third-place award.
Cleveland won this tournament two years ago before losing by a point to Baylor in last year’s final.
Cleveland improves to 8-1 overall with its sixth straight win. Blue Raider coach Joey Knox felt like that single setback against Sonoraville earlier in the season may have been a key to his team’s performance on Saturday.
“We graduated seven guys from last year’s team, but we still have guys who know how to wrestle. Today they fulfilled my expectations, but that loss to Sonoraville was important as it got our attention, Knox began as the championship hardware was being distributed.
“I’m really glad that North Hall came to our tournament this year as they have an outstanding team. A couple of the close matches went our way, but we wanted to push the pace today and my guys did a nice job of that.
“I’m really proud of Ashton Davis and it was his pin that really got us going. But we’re just trying to develop good mat strategy and finding the best way to put ourselves in position to win. I feel like we did a good job of that today,” Knox added.
Cleveland won nine of the 14 matches with three pins and six regular decisions. All of those wins were big, but perhaps the most impressive came from Trae McDaniel at 126 pounds.
Facing Jacob Pedraza in a battle of defending state champs, McDaniel prevailed by an 8-3 final after building a 4-2 lead after two periods. That win put Cleveland ahead by 30-18 before Blake Randall’s 30-second pin at 132 clinched the win for the Blue Raiders.
North Hall coach David Nichols was glad that his team got a chance to participate this year.
“We had some positives today as there were several matches where we came back to win in the third period. Overall, I’m really pleased with what we accomplished today.
“We’re just trying to focus on continuous improvement and knowing it’s a process to get ready for those tournaments at the end, but I feel like we got a lot better today. This is a stepping stone for where we need to be,” Nichols added after his team's first loss in 14 matches.
Damon Campbell’s 5-1 decision in the first match at 145 pounds gave the Trojans a brief 3-0 lead, but four straight decisions from Cael Laxton, Nate Schilling, Zach Brezna and Tetoe Boyd put Cleveland ahead at 12-3.
North Hall claimed four more wins, but never two in a row as the Blue Raiders slowly pulled away.
Bowie Eisenberg and Christian Contreras both had pins for North Hall while Logan West and Jack Whitmire both had decisions, including an 8-6 overtime verdict by Whitmire in the final match of the day.
Davis had Cleveland’s first pin while Bentley Ellison and Randall also had falls for Cleveland. Arlo Laxton and McDaniel had Cleveland’s other two wins.
Davis was honored as the MVP for Saturday’s tournament.
Other teams competing included Dobyns-Bennett, Rossview, Summit, North Gwinnett, Centennial, Arlington, Brentwood, Soddy Daisy, Carrollton and Blackman.
CLEVELAND 36, NORTH HALL 21
(Match Began At 145 Pounds)
106 – Bentley Ellison (Clev) pinned Armand Ladeceour, 1:02;
113 – Arlo Laxton (Clev) dec. Dawson Thompson, 4-1;
120 – Christian Contreras (NH) pinned Daniel Sims, 5:43;
126 – Trae McDaniel (Clev) dec. Jacob Pedraza, 8-3;
132 – Blake Randall (Clev) pinned Jackson Martin, :30;
138 – Jack Whitmire (NH) dec. Burns Meagher, 8-6 in overtime;
145 – Damon Campbell (NH) dec. Garrett Stevenson, 5-1;
152 – Cael Laxton (Clev) dec. Cody Smith, 10-4;
160 – Nate Schilling (Clev) dec. Dalton Battle, 9-2;
170 – Zach Brezna (Clev) dec. Hunter Adams, 3-0;
182 – Tetoe Boyd (Clev) dec. Logan Hawthorne, 2-1;
195 – Logan West (NH) dec. Riley Harris, 6-3;
220 – Ashton Davis (Clev) pinned Seth Carlton, :46;
285 – Bowie Eisenberg (NH) pinned Daniel Wilson, 2:44.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)