Six months ago, it was a giant question as to whether or not indoor winter sports would be allowed to take place, given the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Not only were athletic seasons allowed to take place, they've participated to completion.

On Wednesday, the Class A-AA state wrestling tournament was held at the Chattanooga Convention Center and Cascade High School was represented by a pair of wrestlers.

"Just being able to have that experience where you're wrestling the best 16 wrestlers in the state is phenomenal. Being able to compete with the top guys in the state is a great experience," coach Andy Giel said.

"For the kids, some of them, it's the pinnacle for them. Being able to represent their school and their team is a really great experience."

Ty Wiggins qualified for the 160-pound weight class while Elijah Arnold qualified in the 170-pound weight class.

In a relatively new program that has only been around for a handful of seasons, Giel says having a pair of wrestlers qualify is a key sign the program is not only trending the right way, but hopefully is a sign to other athletes they can compete among the state's best as well.

"It's definitely a motivator for the younger guys in the sport and also people thinking about maybe doing it. It's a four year old program, these guys have been doing it for two or three years," he said.

Wiggins had the tough luck of facing Fairview's Malachi Bennett, who eventually finished second in the tournament.

"Ty in his first match was against the guy who finished second in the state and did fantastic against him. In the end, he just got pinned. He wrestled well and fought well. He has a style all his own and it seemed like the next kid he wrestled had the same style as him and just ended up getting reversed. He wrestled very well throughout. He's been battling a shoulder injury that hurt him there at the end," Giel said.

Arnold also faced some tough competition in the first matches wrestled on Wednesday.

"With Elijah, it was kind of the same story. He wrestled probably one of his better matches he's wrestled all year. The kid has been a state placer before. Especially for Elijah to get there before he's a senior and get a taste of it and wrestle that kind of competition is going to help him next year. In his second match, he just had the reach and strength that was too much," Giel said.

Having a pair qualify for the state tournament shows the young program is heading the right direction and Giel says his team will wrestle any team of any classification in order to face the top-end talent.

"One of the great things about some of our smaller sports like wrestling and golf, you can compete against anybody. We wrestled Riverdale, Coffee County and Tullahoma this year. They can still only put one kid on the mat at the same time," he said.

He hopes seeing the successes of Arnold and Wiggins will show the younger wrestlers in the program have a path to qualifying for the state tournament, even at a small school like Cascade.

"I'm hoping some of our younger guys coming up will see the success and follow that. With the Cascade youth wrestling, we have four or five kids coming up from there that have experience. I'm hoping to get some more girls out," he said.

In addition to the typical challenges in wresting, Giel had to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the season, but was able to overcome the challenges associated with cancellations and contact tracing.

It was extremely hard. We had more cancellation and rescheduling than ever. I think I turned in a final schedule probably 15 times this year. It was rough getting through. I'm extremely happy we were able to finish," he said.

Having been there and done that, Giel hopes that his program will be able to put in a full offseason and enter even more wrestlers in the state competition next season.

"Having gone through all that this year, I think hopefully we won't have to worry about quarantine and get full practices in without worrying about whether we're together too long or contact tracing," he said.

"Hopefully we can build on that."