Eagles wrestlers turn heads at Catholic tourney

It’s full-tilt-boogie for the Seymour High School wrestling squad through the month of December. The Eagles are fresh off an impressive showing at last weekend’s ultra-competitive Catholic Invitational Tournament where they garnered a top-five overall finish as a team going against some of the top prep wrestling units in the state. Veteran Head Coach Rusty McCroskey saw a myriad of encouraging signs at the Catholic Invitational. “I think we did very well,” said McCroskey who has helped shape SHS program into one of the emerging prep wrestling strongholds in East Tennessee. “For such a young team, you had to be impressed with the way our guys represented themselves against some of the elite high school wrestling programs in the state last weekend.” Two of the programs that McCroskey spoke of came to the West Knoxville Tournament from the mid-state area. Chattanooga Baylor and Notre Dame were on hand at the tourney and finished first and third, respectively. Baylor amassed over 300 points at the event, more than twice the total point production of second place Greenville, to win the tournament title going away. Notre Dame was third and Seymour was a very respectable fourth at the tourney. The Eagles’ top contributors on the mats this year are comprised of a group that includes just one senior, three juniors, nine sophomores and two freshmen. Last weekend five different competitors from Seymour placed in the top five of their respective weight classes. Tyler McCroskey finished fourth overall in the 135-pound weight class, Isaac Legg placed fifth in the 140-pound class, senior Lucas Shuler was fourth in the 152-pound class, Gary Wilson placed fifth in the 160-pound class and Garrison Taylor was the third place finisher in the 171-pound weight class. “I definitely think we’re coming on strong,” McCroskey added. “We’re still a very young team of course, but these guys have responded well and are working hard to get back to the state tournament.” The Eagles are coming off a third-place finish in last year’s state tournament in Clarksville. The 2005/2006 team’s appearance at the state round was the school’s first in nine years. The Eagles had a dual meet in Kingston on Tuesday against Cleveland High School and the hosting Yellow Jackets. Seymour will host Knoxville private school competitors Webb and Catholic in what should be a very entertaining set of matches Wednesday evening. Seymour will also host a four-team dual match with the likes of Alcoa, Greenback and Austin-East on Thursday evening at the SHS gymnasium, before the always much-anticipated Eagles Challenge at the Seymour High School gym Saturday morning beginning at 8. The Eagles have a pair of meetings with county-rival Pigeon Forge scheduled for next week.