Saturday was a strong day on the mat for the Caldwell County wrestling program.
Two individual champions, a runner-up, two third-place finishes, five state qualifiers and eight medalists powered the Tigers to a third-place team showing in the Region 1 Wrestling Tournament at Calloway County High School.
Caldwell trailed only perennial region champion and state contender Union County and defending state champion Paducah Tilghman in the team standings.
Union won its 21st straight regional title with 306 points. Tilghman was second with 269. Caldwell totaled 148.5 points to finish ahead of fourth-place Henderson County with 133 points.
Timothy Nichols and Cofy Walls each claimed regional championship for the Tigers with Nichols also picking up the Most Outstanding Wrestler award for the upper weight classes.
Nichols pinned his first two opponents at 150 pounds to get to the finals. He then decisioned Union County’s Jeremy Ray 4-1, getting a late takedown to put that match away.
Walls won his first match by technical fall 20-4 at 138, then got past Tilghman’s Ethan O’Malley 8-4 in the semifinals. In the championship match, Walls edged Union’s Luke Thomas 5-3.
Cole Sherill was runner-up at 215. He won his first two matches with pins in less than a minute, but was then pinned by Tilghman’s Jack James in the finals in 1:47.
Justin Klidzejs and Logan Brown earned trips to the state tournament next week in Lexington with third-place showings in the regional.
Klidzejs went 3-1 at 106, pinning Wyatt Payne of Henderson County in 3:07 in the third-place match.
Brown was 3-1 at 126. His only loss was in an ultimate tiebreaker to Jayven Williams of Tilghman in the semifinals. But Brown came back to pin his next two opponents, including Gavin Kline of Trigg County in 2:49 in the third-place match.
Three other Tigers are alternates for state after fifth-place finishes on Saturday.
Donovan Rogers went 3-2 at 132, decisioning Damon Crockett of Apollo 1-0 in the fifth-place match.
Cale Goodwin was 4-2 at 165. He pinned Calloway County’s Christian Haynes in 4:12 for fifth.
Cooper Mobley went 3-2 at 285, despite giving up quite a bit of weight. He decisioned Luis Lira of Calloway 14-4 in the fifth-place match.
The top four in each weight class advance to the boys’ state wrestling tournament next Thursday and Friday at Alltech Arena at the Kentucky Horse Park.
