Another area duals wrestling tournament ended with the Gilmer High School Bobcats as the top team.
GHS was at North Murray High last Friday for the Area 6-3A event, and the Bobcats posted a 3-0 record for yet another title. Gilmer claimed the top spot with commanding wins over Dawson County (72-6), North Murray (60-7) and Murray County (72-10).
“Our guys have been money all season, and we’re proud of them,” GHS coach Josh Ghobadpoor said. “It’s a team effort when you get down to it. Mistakes against some of these teams today, maybe they don’t come back to haunt us (today). But down the road they definitely will so we have to get better.”
Ghobadpoor noted the need to examine Gilmer’s errors closely as the competition will improve greatly in the coming weeks.
“I tell them all the time that we constantly have to want to improve,” he said. “There weren’t many close team matches. We have to be picky, and we have to be critical to find those mistakes in there whether it be a big thing or a small thing, we constantly have something to correct. We want to keep that momentum going forward of working hard at practice and not think we’ve arrived before we have.”
Aside from gaining more hardware for their trophy case, the Bobcats’ final win of the day marked the 100th of Ghobadpoor’s career as a head coach. This is his sixth season leading a program and fourth at GHS.
“I thought that it (getting 100th win) was kind of neat that it ended with these guys and an area championship with these seniors,” he said. “They’ve been able to win four of them over the course of their career. It’s pretty special. It’s not so much about the milestone for myself, but that I get to remember these guys being a part of it, which is pretty cool.”
Domination starts out of gate
Dawson forfeited seven bouts against GHS, which spotted the Bobcats 42 points. The Tigers’ lone win of the match came with a pin at 132 pounds. Wrestling began at 106 where Bobcats Juan Rafael and Bregan Berry (113) were victorious by forfeit. Bobcat Pascual Escobar (120) won in pin.
DCHS then forfeited to Aldin Tiniguar (126), Sebastian Lopez (138), Frisly Ambrocio (145), Miguel Jacinto (152), Domingo Escobar (160), Noah Goswick (170), Daniel Reynoso (182) and Felipe Perez (195). There was a double forfeit at 285 ahead of Bobcat Dylan Galloway’s pin at 220.
GHS won the first three bouts versus North Murray, which included Arturo Gonzalez (113, minor), Walter Lopez (120, pin) and Kellen Watts (126, minor). The Mountaineers notched a major decision at 132 before six straight Bobcat wins.
Ronald Pierce (138), Brock Sumner (145), Miguel Jacinto, Abel Jacinto (160), Diego Jacinto (170), Hunter Brown (182) all pinned their opponents. With a 48-4 lead, GHS dropped a bout by minor decision at 195.
There was a double forfeit at 220 before Galloway and Carson Farist (106) closed out the match with pins.
Gilmer’s day concluded versus Murray. The match continued the theme of the day, and Gilmer jumped ahead 36-0 with six straight wins. The Indians forfeited to Walter Lopez, Sumner and Miguel Jacinto, while Watts, Gaspar Perez (132) and Pierce pinned.
MCHS won with a major at 160, which preceded another string of GHS victories. Abel Jacinto and Reynoso secured pins, and Murray forfeited to Owen Moss (195). Gilmer opted to forfeit at 285 while Galloway, Farist and Gonzalez all won with pins.
Because GHS won the event, it will be one of eight hosting sites ahead of next week’s state tournament. Gilmer will host different area’s No. 2, No. 3, and No. 4 seeds. The top team will advance to state. Ghobadpoor discussed Gilmer’s plans ahead of the next stage of the qualifying process.
“We have some things we need to work on. Obviously, we’ve not had the mat time this season we’d like to have. We’ll continue to work on that,” he said. “It’s one thing going hard at practice all the time and it’s another thing coming out here in front of everybody and wrestling on the mat. I thought we wrestled better as the day went on and that’s usually the case. We need to work on our nutrition and our weight management and believe a little bit more in ourselves in some places.”
Gilmer is 14-1 on the season. Saturday’s event at GHS will begin at 9 a.m.