After knocking off Central, 49-13, in the semifinals, the top-seeded Trojans defeated Mt. Zion in a 47-34 finals match that got heated on both sides.
The action started on an odd note due to an error on Carrollton’s weigh-in sheet, forcing Trojan senior Chris Foster to forfeit his match at 120 pounds. The Trojans then lost two matches due to injury default, with Rhett Hembree at 138 pounds and Landon McLeod at 170 both slamming Eagle wrestlers, which they were penalized for prior to the injury stoppage.
And while there was some controversy in how it all ultimately played out, Trojan coach Ryan Wilman said his grapplers just came out real physical in the final match of the night.
“On my end, the dual meet started off a little bit crazy. Definitely not in the fashion that we’d like to. An error in our weigh-in sheet. And, unfortunately, the way the rules play out, we didn’t have an opportunity to wrestle our 120-pounder. That’s completely my fault. As the dual meet went on, you could just see that our guys got a little bit anxious because they wanted to make sure we won,” Wilman said.
“I think our boys got riled up with the way the Mt. Zion coach handled the situation. He did it by the books, and I’ve got nothing wrong with it. But our team definitely rallied behind it and it got physical. We took it to them in the matches we wrestled. I really would have loved to see all the matches play out and watch them wrestle all of our weights. I guess that’s a credit to our program and the way that we wrestle. Our boys wrestle hard. I’ve heard that tournament after tournament and dual meet after dual meet — we get after people and get physical. To me, that’s wrestling. That’s the way I train our guys.”
Eagle coach Michael Cleek wasn’t too pleased that two of his wrestlers — Javier Martinez and David Ramirez — got dinged up in the pair of defaults, but he is proud of the progress the squad continues to make. After a third-place showing last year at the county duals, the Eagles took second place this go-around, getting a 55-21 semifinal win over Bowdon to start the night.
“We wrestled real well against Carrollton. Carrollton is a really solid team. They had two guys slam two of our guys pretty hard and I had to protect my team and make sure we make it to area. My hat’s off to [Central] coach [Marcus] Marenda. He hosted a really good duals. I can’t say enough about my guys fighting and just trying to get better every week. I’m really proud of my team. I think the sky’s the limit for them right now,” Cleek said.
Earning victories for Carrollton in the championship match were Jake Adcock at 126 pounds (pin), Taylor Lujan at 152 (pin), Dan Harris at 160 (pin) and Bryan Johnson at 106 (tech fall). The Trojans also won three straight matches by forfeit at 182, 195 and 220 and then another at 113.
Collecting wins for Mt. Zion were Mitchell Chambers at 126 (pin), Fernando Valles at 145 (12-2 major decision) and Will Sizemore at heavyweight (pin). The Eagles also got wins at 120 on the forfeit and the pair of injury defaults at 138 and 170.
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