Pisgah wrestling extends winning streak against Tuscola
Jan. 28—Pisgah's wrestling team knocked off Tuscola for the 16th straight time on Wednesday in the Haywood County rivalry matchup, winning the dual 52-30.
"It was a good dual. Their kids wrestled hard, my kids wrestled tough," PHS Head Coach Ryan Gibson said. "It's true for any sport that you play— you kinda throw all the records out the window when it's Pisgah-Tuscola. The kids are gonna go hard against each other."
Tuscola had a few of its top guys out due to injury or COVID protocols, but head coach Kyle Katz liked what he saw from the Mountaineers that were available.
"We had some holes, weight class wise. We just couldn't put together a full lineup, but the guys that did compete, obviously the level goes up a little higher when you know you're facing your rival county school," Katz said. "I felt like all the kids came through for us. We punched in a lot of guys that typically aren't in the lineup, but they did not hesitate and were excited to get out there for the last match at home."
Pisgah also won a thriller against West Henderson 39-36 on Wednesday to finish ahead of the Falcons in the final conference standings and also keep them out of the state dual team tournament. Tuscola didn't wrestle the Falcons since they already had earlier in the season.
The top two teams from the Mountain Seven earned playoff bids which ended up being North Henderson from the top spot with East Henderson in second. East Henderson had the tiebreaker over Pisgah, but West Henderson had the tiebreaker over East, so a Falcons win over Pisgah on Wednesday would've given them second place.
The Bears were trailing West Henderson 36-27 with only two weight classes to go, needing pins in both to complete the comeback. Freshmen JP Chapman (126 pounds) and Tyson Silver (132) both came through with pins to give Pisgah the victory.
"I was really particularly happy with Tyson Silver because he's been out since the second week of December. He just got cleared and he's not been able to practice or anything," Gibson said. "He stepped into the lineup on Wednesday and pinned the kid from West to win us the dual match and he beat the kid from Tuscola."
Although the Bears were disappointed to miss out on the team state tournament for the first time in years with a third-place finish in conference, Gibson was happy to end the regular season on a high note with two big wins.
"It's a bummer that we didn't get into the playoffs. It's the first year we've not been in the playoffs since I've been coaching, which is fine, it's not a big deal," said Gibson, who became Pisgah's head coach in the 2007-08 season, the year the 16-match win streak against Tuscola started. "But for us to finish 15-8 with a team full of freshmen and sophomores is a huge accomplishment."
Tuscola ended up finishing sixth in the conference in duals, beating out Smoky Mountain. The Mountaineers struggled throughout the season with fielding a full lineup. Injuries and COVID hindered them all year, as well as against Pisgah on Wednesday.
Katz thought having some of his guys that were out could've made a significant impact on the end result. Either way, he was happy with his team's ability to stay in the match.
"We had two kids that were beating their guys but just got rolled over and got caught," Katz said. "If we had the Baker twins in there and Troungan Nguyen, three seniors, I mean this could've been a different story, could've been coming down to the last match."
Although neither Haywood County team will advance to the state dual tournament, both Tuscola and Pisgah will likely have several individual regional qualifiers that will have the chance to compete to move on to the state tournament.
Seeding and placement for the individual weight class brackets will be determined and announced in the next couple of weeks. The 3A western regional is set for Feb. 11-12 at North Henderson.
