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The Oak Mountain Eagles won the inaugural Shelby County Duals championship as the best wrestlers from Oak Mountain, Chelsea, Helena and Shelby County clashed to decide the champion of the school system. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTH SHELBY – The wrestling season kicked off with a bang at Oak Mountain High School as the Oak Mountain Eagles, Chelsea Hornets, Helena Huskies and Shelby County Wildcats duked it out for the right to call themselves the best of the Shelby County Schools system.

In the end, Oak Mountain went 3-0 in their duals to claim the Battle for the Ax and win the inaugural Shelby County Duals on Saturday, Nov. 16.

The tournament featured each school facing each other once throughout the day in three rounds of duals. Montevallo was set to join the other four schools but did not participate in the tournament.

Oak Mountain defeated Chelsea 70-12 before defeating Helena 50-29 and Shelby County 75-6 to claim the title.

In the Chelsea match, the Hornets won just two matches as William Hartsfield and Will McConnell walked away with victories.

Other than that, the Eagles largely cruised as James Polizos, Bentley Haney, James Franklin, Brady Coggin and Jaxon Briggs earned first-period falls, James Pihakis and Emmett Williams won in the second period and Trey Denny and William Hannum won their matches by technical fall.

The Helena match proved to be the closest of the day as Oak Mountain won four of its first five matches in the dual before the Huskies earned three straight falls from Sami Bratina, James Alford and Zechariah Blevins.

The teams traded falls in the next two matches before Williams took a 16-12 decision over James Clecker in the 190-pound match. Peyton Gamble and Evan Smith then won their matches to seal the 50-29 win.

Shelby County only competed in six different matches that counted towards the final score in the match against Oak Mountain, with Nick Sykes notching his team’s lone win with a 28-second fall against Franklin.

Helena took a pair of dual wins over Chelsea and Shelby County to go 2-1 on the day, defeating the Hornets 48-24 and the Wildcats 52-17.

The Huskies started out their match with Chelsea at the 120-pound division after a pair of double forfeits, and Wyatt Eaton and Kenyon Clemens earned a pair of falls to take the early 12-0 lead.

The Hornets then got six points off a forfeit before Jameson Bolen and Dalton Ellis won their matches by falls to take an 18-12 lead.

Helena then reeled off six straight wins to seal the dual, including wins by fall from Alford, Blevins, Brandon McGuire, and Jarius Clecker.

McConnell gave Chelsea six more points before the end of the dual with a second-period fall against Eli Berry.

The Huskies only competed in five matches against Shelby County, but the Wildcats earned three wins in the dual, first off a forfeit in the 132-pound match, then with Sykes’ second-period fall against Micahel Higgins and Logan Loyd’s 20-2 technical fall at the 3:31 mark against Blevins.

Clements, Caden Swinford and Alford won their matches against the Wildcats to help extend the margin of victory.

Chelsea went 1-2 on the day as a 36-23 win over Shelby County was the lone victory of the tournament for the Hornets.

With four matches ending in double forfeit and four more ending in forfeit wins for Chelsea, the Wildcats won four of the six matches that they competed against the Hornets as well as both extra matches.

Garrett Slaughter, David Hapa and Loyd won their matches with a fall and Sykes secured a 17-0 technical fall at the 2:53-mark of his match against Bolen to go 3-0 on the day.

Chelsea got first-period wins from William Sabens and Gamble Lester to help seal the dual victory.

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