The Clear Creek Middle School Bobcats proved to be one of the top teams at the Mountain League’s wrestling tournaments.
CCMS made its way to Dawson County last Friday for the duals portion of the event and secured a runner-up finish.
Teams met the following day in Blue Ridge for the traditional part of the event, and the Bobcats walked away as champions.
“The kids wrestled tough. We came back out Saturday and they wrestled their butts off,” said head coach Thomas Glanton.
“Saturday was a different story for us. Looking at the beginning of the season until now, I think every time we wrestled we got better. We had kids who beat kids they lost to earlier in the year, and that was kind of the trend for us Saturday. That’s always good to see.”
CCMS was without three starters Friday and Saturday “because of COVID or COVID-related issues,” according to Glanton.
In Friday’s semifinals, Clear Creek topped Union County, 56-30.
Bobcats who were victorious by pin included Sara Solis (102 pounds), Isaiah Goodwin (110), Kade Miller (124), Issac Shorter (142), Trace Morton (165), Chris Madden (180), Wyatt Stokes (210) and Atalin Chastain (275).
Braelyn Nelson (86) won by major decision and Carter Ortis (79) secured a minor.
The Bobcats faced Dawson County in the finals, and the Tigers were able to earn a 52-31 victory.
Ortis took the mat first and secured an 8-7 win before CCMS lost four straight bouts to fall behind, 24-3. Juan Bautista (118) and Miller took their bouts by minor and major decision, respectively.
The Tigers extended their lead to 36-10 before Shorter won by minor decision. Following a Morton pin, DCMS did the same in the next two bouts for a 52-19 advantage.
CCMS closed out the title match with pins by Chastain and Tony Puac (72).
Six Bobcats were crowned champion of their weight class the following afternoon.
CCMS champions included Ortis (79), Miller (118), Shorter (147), Morton (165), Madden (180) and Chastain (275).
Nelson was a runner-up in the 86-pound weight class. Clear Creek’s Puac (72), Deyson Lopez (86), Manuel Valezquez (94), Goodwin (110), Bautista (125) and Haydon Calhoun (132) placed third.
Fourth-place finishers were Bo Cronic (110) and Jovanni Raymundo (115).
Behind CCMS (241 points) in the standings were Dawson (225), White (185.5), Union (162.5), Pickens (147) and Fannin (70.5) counties.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction,” Glanton said. “We have the middle school state duals coming up in January. As long as we keep working hard and keep getting better and the kids are coachable, there’s a good chance we can make some noise. We just need to fine-tune a few things and not get caught (out of position).
“We can’t go in and try to out-muscle (other wrestlers). We have to stick to the game plan and wrestle our kind of wrestling.”
The middle school state duals will be Saturday, Jan. 16 at Chestatee High School.