DUANE SHERRILLEditor

The Tullahoma Wildcats wrestling team flew into Eagleville this past week and left with the runner up trophy for Region 6A while placing 11 wrestlers into sectionals this coming weekend, with Caleb Adkins and Connor Avans taking the top spots in their weight classifications.

The Wildcats made 18 pins on their way to getting 172 points and finishing second as a team, just behind Region winner Page which had 205 points. Region host Eagleville finished third with 148 points while Spring Hill was the only other team in triple digits with 111 points.

Head Coach Sean Adkins will now take his team to the TSSAA 3A Sectionals this Saturday 2/18 at Green Hill High School with Adkins and Avans getting the number-one seeds thanks to winning their classes at Region.

The wrestlers qualifying for Sectionals included 108lb Sayvion Surles- 2nd place; 113lb Justin Frank- 3rd place; 126lb Nolan Stroop- 4th place; 138lb Cody Agnell- 3rd place; 145lb Caleb Adkins- 1st place; 152lb Eric Barragan- 3rd place; 160lb Jerzey Hendrix- 2nd place; 182lb Connor Avans- 1st place; 195lb Matt Swiger- 3rd place; 220lb Nathan Jones- 3rd place; HWT Bob Tatum- 2nd place.

The action included:

In the 106 pound quarterfinals, Sayvion Surles started with a bye and then won a fall over Matthew Pennington of Eagleville in the semis. He was defeated in a fall at the 1:59 mark by Joshua Bennett of Cornersville in the finals.

In the 113 pound division, Justin Frank started with a bye and then won a fall at the 1:17 mark over Julius Foster from Marshall County in the quarters. He lost by fall to Zachary Lewis of Eagleville in the semis. He got a bye in the consolation and then took third place with a 5-3 decision over Cosmo O’Neal of Page.

At the 126 class Nolan Stroop received a bye in the first and was defeated in the quarterfinals by Drake Rzemieniewski of Eagleville by a 7-0 decision. He won by fall in the consolation semis at the 4:23 mark over Jackson Harris of Community but then again met Rzemieniewski in the third place match and lost an 8-1 decision.

In the 138 pound class, Cody Agnell won his quarters match over Chris Rorabaugh of Forrest with a fall at 1:50 but was then defeated by Grant Hawkinson of Page via a 3-0 decision. He won his consolation semi match over Carson Henderson of Marshall County with a pin at the 1:52 mark. He then took third place by pinning Aston Dorsett of Moore County at 2:50.

Caleb Adkins claimed the 145 pound division by first winning via fall at 1:34 over Aaron Powell of Marshall County in the quarters before Beating Wyatt Elder of Page with a pin at 1:01 followed by a major decision, 14-4, over Thomas Solomon in the championship match.

At 152 pounds, Eric Barragan got tripped up in the quarters by Nathan Highland of Spring Hill with a fall at 5:30. He rebounded on the consolation round with a 9-1 major decision over Christian Casey of Cascade and then won the consolation semis over Jonathan Zuniga of Cornersville with a 10-6 decision. He again met Highland in the third place match but this time flipped the script, winning third with an 11-5 decision.

At 160, Jerzy Hendrix got things rolling with a fall at 1:08 over Aden Rawls of Cascade and then went on in the semis to beat Cole Darnell of Eagleville with a fall at 3:43. He was defeated in the championship match by Josh Ward of Page by a 13-5 major decision.

At 170, Carson Avans lost in a split decision 8-6 in the first round to Nicolas Dubberly of Lawrence County. He was also defeated in the consolation semis by Reese Olson of Page with a fall at 4:02.

Connor Avans steamrolled his way to the 182 pound title first by getting a fall at 1:33 over Xavier Viazcan in the semis and then pinning Hayden Dowell of Cascade at 1:17 to hoist the title.

At 195, Matthew Swiger lost in the quarters via pinfall at 1:03 to Anthony Smith of Marshall County. He came back in the consolation round to quickly put away Erik Dickey from Lawrenceburg in 15 seconds. He continued on the consolation side of the bracket with a fall over Rowland Bradford of Eagleville at 1:58 and then claimed third place by pinning Anthony Smith of Marshall County at the 2:59 mark.

At 220, Nathan Jones went over Davey of Forrest via fall at 1:44 in the quarters and then fell in the semis against Cole West of Cascade via a close 8-6 decision. He went on in the consolation to beat Alex Stanley of Community by fall at 4:15 and then defeated Caleb Meeks of Page via forfeit to take third.

For the heavyweights at 285 Robert Tatum knocked off Dylan Warren of Cascade via fall at 4:48 to get the finals but lost to Ronan O’Connell of Page by a 3-0 decision in the championship match.