The Cleveland Blue Raider wrestling team got off to a slow start, but stayed focused and came up big to pick up a 39-24 win over the Ooltewah Owls at the Jones Wrestling Building Tuesday night.

In the first match, Ooltewah’s Stewart Doss got the pin over Cleveland’s Josh Hamilton to give the Owls an early 6-0 lead.

Cleveland’s Aaron Lopez came out next for the Raiders in the 145-pound match and took a win by decision over Matthew Seeler to get the Raiders back within 2 making it 6-4.

Wasting no time, Alex Doss of Ooltewah, got the pin over Chuck Norwood (152) taking just 57 seconds and extending the lead to 12-4 for the Owls.

The 160-pound match featured No.-2 ranked Isaiah Nichols of Cleveland against Ooltewah’s Goose Manning, ranked No. 3 in the state. Neither wrestler disappointed as the match went back and forth and finally ended with Nichols taking a 6-5 decision after three extra minutes of overtime pulling the Raiders back in it at 12-7.

Jesse Jones of Cleveland then won a decision over Lameach Jones (189), but Ooltewah’s Joy Redwood came out to take a decision over Seth Snyder (215) giving the Owls a 21-10 lead.

The Raiders then struck back getting a pin from Jordan Hines (285) and Austin Stephenson took a forfeit (103) to put the Blue Raiders up 22-21.

Cleveland then took over with Austin Oliver (112), Hayden Hamilton (125), and Brandon Strickland (130) taking decisions and Marvin Lopez (135) ending the night with a quick pin to give Cleveland the win 39-24 over Ooltewah.