It was a big day for the Indians.

In the Big Red Classic Wrestling Tournament held at Long Gymnasium, Rural Retreat cruised to the team title with 179 points and Greeneville, Tenn., was a distant second place with 159 points.

“It was a good day,” Rural Retreat coach Rick Boyd said. “I didn’t know what to think coming in. The semifinal was a huge round for us.”

The Indians placed seven wrestlers in the semifinals and four came away with titles. In an unusual occurrence the Indians advanced two in the championship round in the 113-class. T.J. Mitchell wrestled teammate Emmanuel Davidson for the title.

“That’s the first time we’ve ever had that,” Boyd said. “It was pretty neat having them go at it.”

Mitchell a senior won with a pin quickly to take the championship. With the win he improved his record this season to 28-2.

“It felt a little strange going against someone on your team,” Mitchell said. “Coach [Boyd] said he wasn’t going to coach either of us.

“I thought we would do well today, but I didn’t expect this big of a margin.”

Travis Anderson (152), Corey Williams (170), and Derrick Yates (182) also took titles in their weight classes for Rural Retreat. In addition to Davidson, Ty Boys (106) and Dakota Snider (132) also grabbed second place finishes.

Yates’ match in the championship with Kyle Bond of Sullivan South was a thriller. It went into overtime with Yates taking an 11-9 decision.

“Fighting off his back in the first period was huge for Yates,” Boyd said. “He got in a hole and dug his way back. Physically he doesn’t look like he should be out there winning these tournaments but he’s a scrappy kid, that stays after it.”

Another exciting match featured two Hogoheegee competitors was Anderson defeating Holston’s Cole Lowe in a 4-3 decision. Lowe has only lost two matches this season and both have came to Anderson this week.

“We seem to be peaking out about right,” Boyd said. “Throughout the year we’ve got guys into the medal round but we haven’t been able to finish. We did a lot better job today and were able to get the win.”

There were some outstanding individual performances. Two-time defending state champion Colby Dean (145) improved his record to 35-0 this season. His brother freshman Logan Dean (160) improved his record to 33-2 with a 7-4 decision over Jeremiah Rogers of Davy Crockett High School.

“I’m so excited,” J.I. Burton coach Shawn Dean said. “We only have five kids and we placed three in the finals. I’m just very proud of all the kids, they wrestled hard the whole day.”

Drew Collins (195) of Wise Central High School also had a good day taking the title. Other individual winners were Jon Boatman (106) of Greeneville; Thomas Payne (120), Albert Kates (220) and Jeffrey Ogburn (126) all of Poquson; Aaron Haywood (132) of Richlands; Doug Williams (138) of George Wythe; and Terrell Moore (285) of Tates Creek.