By WILL CARTER ~ Sports Writer
BELL BUCKLE — The Cascade Champions wrestling squad broke their seven-match losing streak with a tri-match sweep on Monday night and stayed on the winning side with another sweep on Tuesday night against East Robertson and Cornersville.
Cascade faced off against East Robertson to start the meet, and defeated the Indians 51-12 with three wrestlers winning via pin.
“It’s good to get team wins, but I’m more concerned with getting time on the mat this time of year,” Cascade head coach Andy Giel said.
“Getting the guys mat time and more wrestling experience is huge. I think we’ve wrestled almost 25 times so far, so it’s good for us.”
Cole West made quick work of his opponent in the 220 weight class with a 24 second pin and Hayden Dowell wasn’t too far behind as he won the 182 weight class duel in 40 seconds.
The 152 class was a hard-fought matchup between Christian Casey and East Robertson’s Kaleb Perry, but Casey was able to stack points in his favor for a 10-4 decision win after the three rounds.
Nine duels were decided by forfeit between the two squads.
In a more competitive matchup against the Bulldogs, the Champions were able to come away with a 42-24 victory to complete the sweep.
The 195 class started things off between Cascade and Cornersville, and Champion wrestler Isaac Chapa set the tone with a huge victory via pin in the final round.
It was a tight affair for the majority of the duel with Chapa and Bulldog wrestler Xavier Viazcan trading advantageous positions until Viazcan was able to secure some important points for an 8-5 lead heading into the final 30 seconds.
But the momentum shifted when Chapa completed a reversal and secured the win via pin after five minutes and 35 seconds of mat time.
“Sometimes it takes reaching down and being determined that you aren’t going to get beat, and he showed he has that tonight,” Giel said.
Dowell and Max Darefsky were the only other Champions to secure victories not by forfeit against Cornerville with Dowell pinning his opponent in less than a minute once again.
Darefsky secured a pin in the 160 weight class in a minute and 13 seconds.
There were eight total duels decided by forfeit between the two squads.
Cascade will finish out their week with a tri-match at Marion County on Thursday before an extended break in their schedule over the holidays to rest.
“Time off is good for us to rest and recover from all of these matches,” Giel said. “I’m going to give them Friday off, but we’ll practice almost every day over Christmas break.”
