Gilmer, Pickens, Union, Towns and Fannin high schools gathered last week for the inaugural Highway 515 Classic.
The dual tournament was held Wednesday at the Gilmer High School gym, and the Bobcats celebrated their senior wrestlers. GHS posted a 3-0 record to claim the first-place trophy.
“We’re happy with it, but we don’t want to get complacent and just beat teams around us,” GHS coach Josh Ghobadpoor said after a tense finals match against Fannin.
“We have bigger goals in mind, but we were happy with today. We’re the first Highway 515 Classic champions and that means a lot to us. We’re going to hold onto that trophy for a year and hopefully hold onto it for a long time. Overall, we got a lot of junior varsity and girls matches, it was a great senior night, a great ceremony and overall a great night for Gilmer wrestling.”
Gilmer wrestled Towns County first, and the Indians had plenty of holes in their lineup. Towns forfeited seven bouts, and the Bobcats won the rest for a commanding 81-0 victory.
GHS faced Union County next and surged to a 45-0 lead. The Panthers gained 12 points over the next two bouts before GHS closed out the match with five wins to put the score in its favor, 75-12.
The championship match pitted Gilmer against Fannin, a team the Bobcats have not lost to this century.
“We went in and I thought we wrestled tough overall,” Ghobadpoor said. “This is a match I’m sure they were looking forward to and we have been, too. They’re about 15 minutes away from us so that always makes it a good rivalry, and they’re a tough group of kids. They came to fight and that’s what they did.”
GHS won the match over the Rebels, 47-29. Fannin won six of the 14 bouts and pinned in four of those wins to earn bonus points. Ghobadpoor was less than pleased with the Bobcats’ situational awareness during the match.
“We have to do a better job of being coachable and when we say to look out for things and be aware in certain situations, we do that, and if we had done that, the score differential is going to be a lot different,” he said. “Again, we’re learning and continuing to improve. The big thing we have to take away from tonight is to listen and be coachable.”
Wrestling against FCHS began at 113 pounds where Bobcat Carson Bentley earned a pin before Walter Lopez (120 pounds) did the same.
Fannin got on the board with a hard-fought overtime win at 126 pounds, 9-7. The Rebels also got a pin at 132 and 138 to pull ahead, 15-12. Gilmer’s Diego Jacinto put GHS back on top with a pin at 145, and Fannin evened the score at 18-all with a minor decision at 152.
Following a Rebel pin in the 160-pound bout, Bobcat David Lucas (170) notched a pin.
With the score tied, 24-24, Caleb Waddell (182) silenced the Fannin faithful with a deafening pin.
Abel Jacinto and Dylan Galloway pinned their FCHS opponents in the 195- and 220-pound bouts, respectively. During the latter of the two bouts, both teams were docked a team point as the match appeared to get chippy.
Fannin got a final pin at 285, and GHS did the same when Gustavo Morales (106) pinned to end the match.
“Anytime you get pushed, you’re either going to take something from that or let it beat you up,” Ghobadpoor said. “One thing we have done throughout the year with our guys is we have made mistakes and haven’t wrestled perfectly at any point. Even with that, we’re going to learn from it and hopefully our guys get better from it.”
Gilmer’s dual record is 21-2. A recap of the Bradley Central Invitational will appear in next week’s Times-Courier.