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Tullahoma Boys’ Dual team made the State Championship match for the first time ever on Saturday and finished as State runners-up.

The ‘Cats took down Signal Mountain and Pigeon Forge on their way to the championship game against Soddy Daisy. Tullahoma beat Signal Mountain 39-31, with Beau Banks securing the win in the last match. Then the Wildcats beat Pigeon Forge 38-27. They were up 38-21 after Caiden Mears won by being up 15 points, so the ‘Cats forfeited the last match having already secured the win and a spot in the championship game. This was the first time the Wildcats have ever advanced past the semifinal match, and they did it with new head coach Bob Callison.

“From Pat Welsh to Jeff Lester to Sean Adkins, the program has been building for a while so I was blessed to come into that situation with that being built in place,” said Head Coach Bob Callison. “I had faith that things were going to turn out good and so that’s why I came to Tullahoma and here we are. You want the gold, but there’s 147 other teams that would probably love to be in our place right now. That’s why I tell the guys to enjoy this, it doesn’t happen every year and it hasn’t happened at Tullahoma, but hopefully we get to do it again and bring the gold one back but for today bringing home the runners-up trophy is a big deal to us and we’re going to celebrate it.”

Signal Mountain finished the tournament in third place and Pigeon Forge finished in fourth. Signal Mountain was ranked second according to pin-tn as of Jan. 31. Pigeon Forge was third.

“They were ranked in front of us and I knew that so nobody can say that it was a fluke that we got in, we wrestled tough and earned it and had a really good day,” said Callison. “I’m really proud of our boys, our coaches, our parents and our community for showing up it was a good day.”

Tullahoma started their day in Franklin strong winning six of the first seven matches of the day. Mears started the day with a pin in 12 seconds to give the Wildcats an immediate 6-0 lead over Signal Mountain. Corbin Avans followed up with a win getting up 15-0, getting a technical fall win so the ‘Cats led 11-0. Roman Sintic pinned his opponent at 5:15 to take a commanding 17-0 lead. After Tullahoma lost a match on points, Carson Avans got the team back on track with a victory on points, 11-4. Chandler Kile emphatically won the next match by picking his opponent up and taking him down for a pin in the first period. Robert Tatum completed the three match win streak with a win by pin in the second period. The ‘Cats held a 32-4 lead before losing three straight matches, making it 32-20. Then Zachary Murphy got the sudden victory in overtime over his opponent, 6-4, to make it 35-20. Tullahoma lost the next two matches by fall and technical fall, making it 35-31 before the final match. Banks took care of business getting a major decision, 11-3 for the ‘Cats to advance into the semifinal.

The Wildcats lost the first match of their semifinal battle against Pigeon Forge by pin. Sintic got the ‘Cats on the board with a 4-2 decision in the second match. Then Connor Avans got a win in the second period by pinning his opponent, giving the team a 9-6 lead. Tullahoma lost the next two matches by decision and fell down 12-9. Tatum got the back for the Wildcats with a pin in the second period. Then Brodie Minor pinned his opponent in 59 seconds to give the team a 21-12 lead. After a loss by pin, Justin Frank picked up a win on points, 3-0 for Tullahoma. Pigeon Forge won the next match by decision, then Tullahoma finished off the Tigers by winning the next three matches. Andres Hamilton got it started with a pin in the first round of his match. Banks followed up with a 5-3 decision win before Mears won by technical fall 20-3, to give the Wildcats an insurmountable 38-21 lead. With the win secured Tullahoma forfeited the 150 pound class match to get to the final score 38-27 and advance into the championship match for the first time in program history.

In the championship round, Tullahoma was matched up with 33-0 Soddy Daisy. The two teams faced each other once in December and Soddy Daisy won 58-14. The match started with Soddy Daisy winning by pin. Connor Avans got the first points for the Wildcats with an 8-3 decision to make it 6-3. Then the ‘Cats lost seven straight matches. Only three of those losses were by pin, two were from decision and two were from majority decision. Hamilton got the ‘Cats more points with a sudden victory, 6-4 to make it 38-6. The Trojans won the next match by pin to go up 44-6. Mears won his match by majority decision 12-4 to get Tullahoma into double digits 44-10. Soddy Daisy forfeited the last two matches to bring the final scored to 44-22.

“It was a team effort and that’s from our wrestlers, coaches, parents, community and sponsors so we can do the things that we need to do to build it up. Proud to be from Tullahoma and proud of this Tennessee run. Hopefully we’re back here again.”

The wrestling season is not over yet, the Individual Region tournament is this Saturday at Eagleville High School.