Gilmer High wrestling has owned Hwy. 515 for a quarter century, and its reign continued last Wednesday.
GHS, Pickens, Fannin County and Towns County met in Blairsville along with host Union County for the annual 515 Classic.
The Bobcats, who are ranked No. 1 in Class 3A, received an opening round bye. After Union defeated Towns in round one, Gilmer smashed the Panthers, 66-9.
Pickens also beat Fannin in the first round to set up a meeting with GHS. The Dragons won just two of 14 bouts as the Bobcats steamrolled their way to a 69-9 victory.
“We told our guys this is a rivalry event. This is for bragging rights versus all our rivals and we need to step up,” said GHS head coach Josh Ghobadpoor. “All of those teams want to beat us so we walked in with a target on our back. We have a certain amount of pride to carry into that. I thought our guys wrestled very well.
“We lost four of 28 matches, and I think we could’ve won all four of those.”
Bouts versus Union began at 120 pounds, and GHS started the match with five straight first-round pins by Arturo Gonzales, Bregan Berry (126), Kellen Watts (132), Carson Bentley (138) and Ben Velasquez (145).
Trailing 30-0, UCHS won by decision at 152 and got a fall at 160.
GHS closed out the match with seven straight victories. Daniel Reynoso (170) and Diego Jacinto (182) both won by decision before first-round pins by Owen Moss (195), Dylan Galloway (220) and Tony Olea (285).
Union forfeited to Bobcats Juan Rafael (106) and Carson Farist (113).
Berry earned Gilmer’s first team points versus Pickens with a pin, and the Dragons got a decision at 132.
Bentley and Velasquez secured pins, and Frisly Ambrocio (152) won by sudden victory for a 21-3 GHS lead.
Six consecutive Bobcat pins followed by Rolando Raymundo (160), Reynoso, Hunter Brown (182), Moss, Galloway and Olea for a 58-3 advantage. PHS also forfeited to Rafael and Farist before the Dragons got a late pin in the 120-pound bout to cut Gilmer’s win to 60 points.
The Bobcats made their way north to the Cleveland, Tenn., Duals on Saturday. The highly-competitive event lived up to its billing, and GHS posted a 3-2 overall record for fourth place out of 10 teams.
“Taking everything into account, I think we did a lot of good things,” Ghobadpoor said. “There are still a lot of things we need to work on and improve. We have to stay off our back. We can’t be in these big matches and expect to win them giving up pins as much as we did. We just have to get tougher in those situations.”
Teams were split into groups of five and GHS faced teams from Tenn. each match. Gilmer started the event by defeating Arlington (49-27) and Blackmon (36-30).
Cleveland is the No. 1 team in Tenn., and after the outcome was clear, Ghobadpoor used some backups to close out the match in a 51-18 loss. The Cats then earned a 58-18 win versus Rossview.
GHS drew Father Ryan in its crossover match for third place and lost, 51-27.
“We just didn’t start off very well,” Ghobadpoor said of Gilmer’s final match. “We gave up some pins that we really shouldn’t have. Once that snowball started to happen, it was hard to get back in gear. We were still in it down to the last three or four matches, but we had to get some bonus points and didn’t have enough in the tank.
“We gave up seven pins and had one injury default. It’s hard to win any match giving up that many bonus points.”
Cleveland won the tournament followed by Woodland— Cartersville, Father Ryan and Gilmer.
“There were a lot of really good teams at this tournament. I’m proud of us for finishing in the top four. We’ve got to be ready for big match after big match and be able to fight through some adversity,” Ghobadpoor said.
“We had five undefeated wrestlers going into this tournament, and we left with one, and that was Carson Farist. He had a couple really tough kids, and it shows you what level of competition is at this tournament. We had some undefeated guys who went 1-3. It shows the level of competition we’re seeking.”
Gilmer is 22-3 overall and will host a quad match Wednesday starting at 5:30 p.m. After the third match, GHS will recognize its senior wrestlers.