Two Caldwell County seniors finished their high school wrestling careers with state medals.
Cofy Walls took third at 138 pounds and Timothy Nichols was fourth at 150 to highlight the Tigers’ trip to the KHSAA State Championships Thursday and Friday at Alltech Arena in Lexington.
Walls went 5-1 in his weight class, including a 2-1 victory over Hunter Luttrell of Louisville Fairdale in the third-place match.
Walls won his first three matches by major decision, beating Demitre Beltran of Cooper 16-6, Dominick Goatley of Louisville Eastern 17-6 and Jonah Baysinger of Scott County 21-10.
That put Walls in the semifinals, but he suffered his only loss to T.J. Meyer of Walton Verona 5-1.
Walls came back to pin Johnson Central’s James Morris in 4:59 in the consolation semifinals to earn his spot in the third-place match.
Meanwhile, Nichols went 4-2 at 150.
He won his first three matches, pinning Liam Bird of Walton Verona in 4:28, decisioning Braeden Kelley of Madison Southern 4-1 and pinning Brandon Gist of Louisville Valley in 2:37.
In the semifinals, Nichols was pinned by Oldham County’s Miller Brown, the eventual champion, in 1:12. But Nichols came back to decision Taylor County’s Jacob McDonald 2-0 in the consolation semis.
In the third-place match, Nichols fell to Rider Trumble of Ryle 6-3.
Walls and Nichols each won regional championships the previous weekend at Calloway County.
Caldwell had three other wrestlers compete at state.
Justin Klidzejs went 1-2 at 106, Donovan Rogers was 1-2 at 132 and Cole Sherill went 1-2 at 215.
Sherill suffered a shoulder injury in his second match and was unable to continue, resulting in a medical forfeit.
Logan Brown qualified for state at 126 pounds but was unable to compete due to an injury. Brown was a medalist at state last season, placing seventh.
Caldwell totaled 47 team points at state to finish 21st in the team standings.
Union County won the team championship while Paducah Tilghman placed fourth.
