The Gilmer High Bobcats will be one of eight teams at this weekend’s state tournament.
GHS hosted one of eight preliminary dual qualifiers in Class 3A last Saturday and emerged as the top team to earn its spot at state.
The four-team event included Monroe Area, Cherokee Bluff and Ringgold high schools.
The Bobcats were down four starters, and faced Monroe Area first and handed the Purple Hurricanes a 64-12 thrashing. With a state spot on the line, GHS sent the Cherokee Bluff Bears back home with a 57-21 defeat.
GHS head coach Josh Ghobadpoor discussed the Bobcats’ day. Initially, he anticipated being down two starters who were in quarantine. However, another wrestler fell ill prior to Saturday’s matches and did not wrestle while another was injured during warmups.
“When the team heard the news, it was the mentality of ‘next man up’ and ‘what can I do for the team.’ Nobody ever says ‘no’ when we put them in a tough spot,” Ghobadpoor said.
“Sometimes they have to bump up a weight class and face a tough wrestler. There’s something to be said for that. We don’t win them all when we have to do those things, but at the same time, we go out and battle and that’s what we had to do today. I’m proud of them. Considering the circumstances, I thought they responded very well.”
Versus Monroe, the Purple Hurricanes won via decision at 220 and 152 pounds with a pin in the 195-pound bout.
Those who secured pins for GHS included Tony Olea (285 pounds), Bregan Berry (113), William Lopez (132), Ronald Pierce (145), Diego Jacinto (160) and Hunter Brown (182).
Bobcat Kellen Watts (126) won by major decision while Monroe opted to forfeit to Carson Farist (106), Walter Lopez (120), Sebastian Lopez (138) and Daniel Reynoso (170).
Against Cherokee Bluff, Gilmer won the first four bouts. Farist and Arturo Gonzalez (113) pinned while Olea and Walter Lopez each earned six team points by forfeit.
The Bears won with a minor at 126 and pinned at 132. Pierce added six points to the team score with a pin in 56 seconds to increase the Bobcats’ lead, 30-9.
CBHS got another pin at 145, and Bobcat Frisly Ambrocio (152) scored a pin in the third period of his match. A Diego Jacinto pin was followed by Abel Jacinto’s (170), and Brown did the same as Gilmer’s lead was extended, 51-15.
Cherokee Bluff pinned at 195 and Dylan Galloway (220) won in the same fashion for GHS to close out the match.
“That’s a solid victory against a decent team. They have some good athletes and some experienced wrestlers,” Ghobadpoor said. “With four starters down, the margin wasn’t that big. I’d like to see it if we had everyone in there what that score would have been.”
Ghobadpoor had plenty of praise for his wrestlers and discussed some of the moments that grabbed his attention.
“Frisly stepped in on short notice. He was going to have to step in at 145, but then had to wrestle 152,” Ghobadpoor said. “He wrestled a really tough match for us and got the stick (pin) versus Cherokee Bluff.
“We had to have some other guys step up and be ready. Ronald Pierce had a great day. He had two sticks for us. Hunter Brown had a huge match (versus Cherokee Bluff). The guy he wrestled was in the blood rounds (one win shy of placing) at state last year. He got a huge pin for us. Carson Farist and Arturo have been money. Diego faced a really tough kid and wrestled well against someone who was a little bigger.”
The Class 3A duals state tournament will be held Saturday at Cherokee Bluff High School. Tickets are only available to wrestlers’ families, and the eight-team event is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m.
Ghobadpoor discussed the week ahead of the tournament, saying, “We have to sharpen up. I was taking notes during our matches of things we specifically need to work on at practice. We need to go back to that and will have five days to prepare this week. We’ll probably start the week out a little slower and then build into it as we go.”