By: Lee Ramsey
lee@seymourherald.com
The Seymour wrestling team recently hosted their annual dual wrestling tournament, the Eagle Challenge, at Seymour High School.
It was a large tournament with top area teams participating.  There was plenty of excitement and a big time atmosphere. Seymour Head Wrestling Coach Alex Cate did an excellent job running the event with plenty of volunteer help.
Seymour’s matches were held in the cafeteria room which created its own private theatre type atmosphere.  The gym floor was covered with mats from one end to the other as well as the separate student section.
As a team, Seymour finished 6th out of 15 teams which was good considering the competition.  The Eagles defeated Karns 56-26, the X-team 75-6, Powell 66-17 and lost to Wayne County, KY 47-36 who finished 2nd overall.
The tournament champion was Cordova High school of Memphis coached by former Seymour wrestling standout Robert Ziets.
Heritage High School finished 3rd in the tournament by defeating Stone Memorial 41-39.
Individually there were three Seymour wrestlers who won all 4 of their matches – Will Stooksbury, Trent Williams, and Brandon Hawker.
“All our wrestlers did a great job earning wins and pins when we needed to keep the team score alive,” said Cate. “They all won at least one match, and several won two or three matches.”
Two top ranked wrestlers completed head-on in the Heritage vs. Cordova semi final dual.  Keagon Matlock of Heritage is ranked first in the state at 152 lbs faced Reginald Adams of Cordova who is ranked 3rd in the state.  Matlock won the match with a decision.
“It was a good day of wrestling,” said Cate.  “We had a close match with Wayne County who finished second.  
“The field of teams was all close in their level of competition which made for several great match ups throughout the day.”
Participating teams were – Heritage, Powell, Sevier County, Farragut, South-Doyle, Cocke County, Cordova, Webb, Stone Memorial, Halls, Patrick Henry, William Blount, Wayne County (KY), Karns and Seymour.
Cate seemed pleased with the way the tournament went overall.  He was especially grateful for all the help he received from everyone involved.  
“Thanks to all the Seymour wrestling parents and family who helped run a great tournament,” he said.

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