McCallie Hangs On To Win D-II-East Region Wrestling

Blue Tornado Wins With 299 While Baylor Second With 295

The McCallie Blue Tornado wrestling team won the Division II-East Regional wrestling tournament at Baylor's Jimmy Duke Arena Saturday afternoon and the tournament was won with productivity in earlier rounds.

McCallie sent 10 to the finals as did Baylor.  These two proud schools had six head-to-head matchups and Baylor won them all, but McCallie was able to hold on for the victory as they finished the day with 299 points.  Baylor was second with 295.

Lakeway Christian was third with 220.5 while Chattanooga Christian and Boyd Buchanan completed the top five teams with 144 and 110 points, respectively.

McCallie coach Jake Yost never seems to get overly excited about anything and he didn't on Saturday, but he was obviously happy with the results his team produced.

"I'm super proud of the way we battled as we advanced all 14 to the state next week and I'm not sure we've done that before," he said after the last match had been completed.

"We had a pretty good lead, but Baylor was able to come back.  We still won by four points.  It's really nice to come over here and win this tournament, but the state at MBA next weekend is our main goal.  But all of our kids did their job and all scored a bunch of points.

"We won a few where we were the lower seed, but it was just a great overall team effort.  We had a really good day today, but next week is the big focus," Yost added.

Baylor coach Sean Russell knew that his team would have to wrestle well in the finals to overcome McCallie's early lead.  He felt like his team worked hard and had a good day, but they weren't able to get as many bonus points as they needed, which allowed McCallie to hang on for the win.

"We had a good tournament and we competed well, but we just made some stupid decisions that cost us," Russell said after a chat with his team after all the matches had ended.

"We just weren't able to make up the difference.  We feel good about next week and feel like we have the team to win it all, but we just have to tighten up a few spots and not take short cuts.  We need to score every point we can get," he added.

Baylor finished the day with eight champs while McCallie had three.  Lakeway Christian had two while Chattanooga Christian had the other.

Baylor's winners included Riley Alcantar at 113, Gabe Swann at 120, Malachi Puckett at 138, George Emendorfer at 144, Ollie Phillips at 157, Titus Norman at 165, Dylan Reel at 190 and Rock Shurette at 215.

McCallie's three included Jaxon Lane at 132, Dylan Villers at 150 and Zaydan Morgan at 175 while Lakeway's two champs included the Comes brothers, Jonathan at 106 and Samuel at 126.  Ryder Smith of CCS was the winner at 285.

There were three pins in the finals, including two by McCallie and one by Smith of CCS.  Lane and Morgan both had first-minute falls for the Blue Tornado.  Baylor responded with four wins by technical fall, but it just wasn't enough to beat McCallie.

While McCallie led the way with 14 qualifiers, Baylor was next with 13 while Lakeway had 11.  CCS advanced eight while Boyd Buchanan will take seven.

FINAL TEAM SCORES: 1. McCallie 299; 2. Baylor 295; 3. Lakeway Christian 220.5; 4. Chattanooga Christian 144; 5. Boyd Buchanan 110; 6. Concord Christian 80.5; 7. Notre Dame 76.5; 8. Knoxville Catholic 61.5; 9. Knoxville Webb 60; 10. Grace Christian 57; 11. Christian Academy of Knoxville 44; 12. Silverdale 38.5; 13. Providence Academy 3.5; 14. St. Andrew's-Sewanee 0.

CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS

106 – Jonathan Comes (Lakeway Christian) dec. Tristan Mouton (Baylor), 9-5;

113 – Riley Alcantar (Baylor) won by technical fall over Nolan Hardeman (Boyd Buchanan), 4:24;

120 – Gabe Swann (Baylor) won by technical fall over Luke Kibelbek (Lakeway Christian), 4:58;

126 – Samuel Comes (Lakeway Christian) dec. Chris Phillips (Baylor), 6-5;

132 – Jaxon Lane (McCallie) pinned Harbor Bent (Boyd Buchanan), :33;

138 – Malachi Puckett (Baylor) dec. Cooper Mariakis (McCallie), 8-3;

144 – George Emendorfer (Baylor) dec. Billy Hamilton (McCallie), 4-1 in overtime;

150 – Dylan Villers (McCallie) won by forfeit over Blake King (Chattanooga Christian);

157 – Ollie Phillips (Baylor) dec. Cainan Williams (McCallie), 7-3;

165 – Titus Norman (Baylor) won by technical fall over Jon Cross (McCallie), 4:17;

175 – Zaydan Morgan (McCallie) pinned Donnis BoochiCe (Chattanooga Christian), :42;

190 – Dylan Reel (Baylor) won by technical fall over Cooper Ledbetter (McCallie), 2:00;

215 – Rock Shurette (Baylor) dec. Cooper Gentle (McCallie), 5-4 in sudden death overtime;

285 – Ryder Smith (Chattanooga Christian) pinned Cannon Voiles (McCallie), 3:27.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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