Chestnut Grove put up matching scores against Pilot Mountain and Piney Grove to seal its first Foothills Conference wrestling title since the Trojans were co-champions in 2006.

Coach Jason Sammons said returning to the top of the conference has been the main priority all year.

“The conference championship was something that these kids started to talk about from day one of practice,” said Sammons. “They worked very hard and felt as though we would go undefeated.”

While that didn’t come to pass, Sammons said the Trojans’ loss to Southeastern only propelled the kids more.

“The loss to Southeastern motivated the kids tremendously and helped them focus down the stretch. None of these kids had ever won a team title in wrestling, and after a tough rebuilding year last year, they wanted to make sure they had a fantastic finish.”

The Trojans topped each of last week’s opponents 60-27 to close the regular season.

The Trojans won 10 of the 15 matches last Thursday at Pilot Mountain to take capture victory and improve to 13-1 on the year. Seven of those wins came on pins.

Dennis Rife, Dustin Chunn, Taylor Wall, Polo Ferretiz, Justin Garlowe, Zach Manley and Brandon Helvey each scored a pin in the win. Corbin Easter, Ryan Perkins and Steve Lawson each won by forfeit.

Of Chestnut Grove’s five losses on the day, none hurt more than Jacob Tilley’s at 145 lbs. Tilley was undefeated heading into the match and seemed poised to stay that way. However, Tilley got hurt and lost the match by injury default.

Sammons said Tilley should be ready to go for the conference tournament this Saturday at South Stokes, and he’s excited about the Trojans’ chances.

“I feel very good about the conference tournament because I have several kids who are undefeated in

their weight classes,” said Sammons. “I have several who have lost wrestling up or down a weight class, but I feel with everyone in their strongest weight class we will be very strong.”