CLEVELAND, Tenn. (WRCB) -- For 14 straight years, Bradley Central has not only qualified for the TSSAA state duals, but it's also wrestled in the state final match.
Both of those streaks came to an end Thursday night on the Bears' home mat at Jim Smiddy Arena when rival Cleveland topped BCHS 34-33 in the semifinals of the Region 3-AAA duals.
The Blue Raiders built up a 34-15 lead before deciding to forfeit the final three weight classes, thus making the one-point final difference a bit misleading. Third-ranked Cleveland (16-4) beat the Bears by 40 in a dual earlier this season.
Bradley Central (13-6) took two of the first three bouts with pins from Tyler Shuch and Jacob Bailey, but the Blue Raiders answered with four straight wins, capped by Seth Snyder's pin at 220 pounds.
After Bradley's Patrick Benson stopped the streak with the heavyweight win, Cleveland rattled off three more victories to clinch the match. Chris Debien's tech fall and Austin Oliver's pin highlighted the Blue Raiders' final flurry.
Second-ranked Soddy-Daisy (24-2) will join Cleveland at the TSSAA state duals in Franklin next week after routing Walker Valley 69-3 in the other semifinal. The two teams opted not to wrestle for the region title, thus giving the championship to the higher-seeded Trojans.
Soddy-Daisy won 13 of the 14 weight classes against the Mustangs, including pins from Austin Houser, Adam Brewer, Brad Peckinpaugh, Gage Richmond, Blaike Henry and Alex Seeley. Jacob Stevens and Turbo Smith each won with technical falls.
Seeding for next week's state duals will be released over the weekend.
