The Daily Times

This one goes down as the biggest and the most competitive in Alcoa duals wrestling.

The Tornadoes wrestling team hosted a 15-team prep duals tournament on Friday, the largest in the wrestling program’s history. No Knox or Blount County team survived the morning round of competition, in which four teams emerged for the championship round.

Science Hill, a regular participant of the Alcoa duals, bested Brookwood High School in Georgia for the championship spot by a score of 41-29. Beech topped Dickson for the third place spot, 43-31.

Though Alcoa, Maryville, William Blount and Greenback were eliminated from contention for a top-four spot, area wrestling coaches welcomed the chance for more time on the mat against teams they don’t usually schedule.

Cherokees

Greenback defeated Powell, West, and a team comprised of junior varsity wrestlers from Blount County schools that Cherokees coach Jason Hicks dubbed the “X-team.” Alcoa and Science Hill both handed the ‘Kees losses. Hicks is also offensive coordinator for the Greenback football team, which made the playoffs this season. As a result, the wrestling team got a late start, he said.

“We’ve been wrestling for about a month now. We went to the Catholic tournament, and we had a duals meet with Karns, Austin-East and at Webb. So this is only the third time we’ve really been out wrestling,” said Hicks, a first-year wrestling coach at Greenback.

Former William Blount grappler Ben Ward is helping coach Greenback this season, too. Greenback plans to compete in the William Blount Invitational, scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 7.

“January is a pretty busy month for us. So we still got a few kids that are still trying to get in shape. A lot of these other teams have been at it a longer than we have,” Hicks said. “Been going at it hard for about a month. We practiced during Christmas break, got a lot of good work in there. And this was good for us, too.

“We’ve got some really young kids who have never really been on the mat before, so we’re just trying to get them some mat time and get them some experience.”

Greenback returns two seniors, Brooks Talley (160-pound class), who qualified for the state tournament last season, and Jacob McCarter (195).

Tornadoes

Alcoa wrestling coach Brian Gossett said the tournament was bigger, in part, to give Blount County teams a chance to wrestle teams they had never seen before.

“Part of why we got a lot extra is because WB and Maryville agreed to come this time, and that made our tournament a lot better,” Gossett said. “We wanted to make sure we went out and got some people they haven’t seen, so we could all kind of help each other out.”

Alcoa defeated Grace Christian, Greenback, and Hardin Valley. The Tornadoes needed to beat Brookwood to advance to the championship round, however.

“Brookwood is up there in the championship pool, and we battled them really well,” Gossett said. “We did real well in our three wins. It’s just one of those things where we just got to keep getting better. Keep getting better, keep working and going from there.”

Governors

William Blount’s matches on Friday completed a holiday schedule loaded with tournaments and practice. The Governors also took the mat at Alcoa nagged by illness and injury that resulted in forfeiture of three weight classes. The Governors easily defeated Fulton and West, but their youth caught up to them against Dickson.

“We’re the youngest, and that’s what hurt us,” William Blount coach Tim Satterfield said. “Some of our seniors didn’t come through for us.”

The Governors didn’t lack for effort, though.

“The kids fought hard. They wrestled tough, up and down the ladder. It wasn’t because of lack of effort.”

William Blount is coming off a third-place finish at tournament in Wayne County, Ky., on Wednesday. They also took part in the Smoky Mountain Duals at Pigeon Forge last weekend, a tournament that draws nationally ranked teams, Satterfield said.

Rebels

Maryville routed Sevier County, Hardin Valley and Christian Academy of Knoxville. The Rebels scored at least 70 points against each of those teams but lost to Beech, 44-30.

Maryville held the advantage for the first half of the match. Cory Glover (145) and Jaron Brock (182) pinned their opponents in the first period. Chad Solomon also pinned a Beech wrestler in the 160-pound class in the third period.

The momentum shifted when Beech got pins in the 106- and 113-pound class, then followed up with a major decision in the 120-pound class to seal the team win. Alan Frisco pulled Maryville within in 10 points when he got a pin in the 126-pound class.

Maryville coach Mark Humphrey said the Rebels had about “a third” of the matches that Beech has had this season, and Friday’s match was the team’s first with Beech in program history.

Maryville has a lot of matches scheduled in January — about nine in a period of 15 days. The dual matches for district competition are also scheduled next month.

“We need mat time is what we need,” Humphrey said.

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