Panther Wrestler 2018 State Champion

The Cabot Panther Wrestling Team competed in hundreds of matches throughout the 2017-2018 season and one athlete wrestled his way to a state championship title!

Senior C.J. Long (195 lbs. weight class) had an impressive wrestling season with an individual record of 44-3 with his only losses being against current titled state champions.

C.J. has been wrestling for many years and also played football at Cabot. C.J. moved to Cabot from Oregon six years ago and says he was challenged mentally and physically with wrestling and grew as an athlete throughout his high school career.

C.J. and his teammates competed at the State Tournament on Feb.16-17 in Little Rock. On the final tournament day and at his last match, C.J. (ranked #3) did a last minute escape with seven seconds to go in the match against Logan Collins (ranked #1) of Springdale Har-Ber to win the match with one second to spare! The final score of the intense match was 7-6.

Click HERE to read an article from Arkansas Online on final match.
Click HERE to read an article from The Leader on match.

C.J. has one more wrestling match this year where he will compete in the "Battle of the Bad" 4 State Dual Competition March 6th at Oklahoma A&M College.

He has already enlisted in the AR National Guard and plans on attending boot camp and basic training this summer. He plans on attending Southern Arkansas University (SAU) in the fall for Agriculture Business.

C.J. Long 2017-2018 Wrestling Titles:

• 1st Place - Rumble at the Rock (Dec 2017)

• 3rd Place – Bentonville West Invitational (Dec 2017)

• Most Outstanding Wrestler Award – Bryant Dual

• 1st Place - Sam Ginn Homet Swarm (Maumelle Swarm Dec 2017)

• 1st Place -  Cabot Pools (Jan 2018)

• Champion – Big East Conference

• Champion - 2017-2018 Boys State Wrestling 7A-6A 195 lbs. (Feb 2018)

2017-2018 Tournament Team Highlight Include:

• Rumble at the Rock Tournament - Girls team took 3rd Place

• Cabot Pools Tournament - 2nd Place

• Bryant Dual Tournament - 2nd Place

• Conference Tournament - 3rd Place

• Conference Dual - 3rd Place

At state, the wrestling team finished 14th overall in Division 6A-7A, with a 71.5 score. Click HERE for the rankings.

Congratulations C.J., Coach Justin Turner, Asst. Coach David Payne, and student athletes on a great season.

Congrats to 7A State Champion Wrestler CJ Long! Congrats also to Dillon Dowda for being named All State! The future is bright for Panther Wrestling! We are proud of our team’s growth this year! pic.twitter.com/1A9FdoGkzC

— Cabot Athletic Dept. (@CabotAthDept) February 18, 2018