Polk Middle wrestlers celebrate season finale with a victory

A season full of hard work finally brought a reward Thursday for Polk County Middle School’s wrestling squad.

The Wolverines began the day honoring their eighth graders and ended it celebrating with them, earning their first win of the season with a 58-42 victory over Bethel Middle School in Blue Ridge Middle School Conference action at Polk County Middle.

Trailing 24-3 five matches into Thursday’s meet, Polk Middle fought back with three straight wins by pin. The teams then largely traded forfeits the rest of the way, with Polk Middle winning the final five matches in that manner to clinch the victory.

“It’s always good to end with a win,” said Polk Middle head coach Ben Johnson. “Obviously, we’ll have a lot of seventh graders back next year, and hopefully those eighth graders moving on to high school will take something from here and be able to be successful at high school.”

Ethan Edwards gave Polk an early lead with a 21-12 major decision in the 85-pound weight class. Bethel then won the next four matches before the Wolverines rallied.

Javin Mings dominated his match at 122, winning by pin in 29 seconds. Christian Davis made a key move to open the second period of his 128-pound match and soon scored another pin, doing so 30 seconds into the period. Charlie McKaig then controlled the 134-pound match from start to finish before finally scoring the pin with eight seconds left in the second.

“We’ve been looking for that all season, just trying to gain momentum at those lower weights,” Johnson said. “When we get some wins after some tough losses, it gets everybody’s momentum back up.”

Eight of the nine remaining matches would be forfeits, with six of those recorded for Polk. That meant the Wolverines’ upper weight class group, the team’s strength, didn’t have to wrestle, but Johnson thinks many of them will have a chance to do so on Feb. 4 at the Blue Ridge individual tournament. The top six wrestlers in each weight class will qualify for that meet.

“I’m sure we’ll have a strong showing at the conference meet as far as the heavier weights,” Johnson said.

“All in all, we constantly improved all year, and I’m happy with the way we finished.”