Bradley Early Favorite In Region 4-AAA Wrestling

Defending Champ Bears Have Six Top Seeds; Cleveland, Soddy Daisy Three Each

  • Tuesday, February 9, 2016
  • John Hunt

CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- We're getting down to the fun part of the high school wrestling season.

All of the dual meets have been held and the State Duals are complete as well.

Now it's time to see how many individuals each team can qualify for next week's traditional state tournament and that's the purpose of this weekend's regional action.

The Bradley Bears, who breezed to the State Duals title, are the early favorites to win the Region 4-AAA tournament, which will be held at Cleveland Middle School on Saturday.

Teams from Cleveland and Soddy Daisy would like to have a say in the matter, but with the Bears earning six number-one seeds, it appears that the remaining seven teams in the field will be battling for second place.

Those earning top seeds for Bradley include T.J. Hicks at 113, Ryan McElhaney at 120, Knox Fuller at 138, Donnie Beyer at 152, Brett Brown at 195 and D.J. Adams at 285.

Cleveland and Soddy Daisy both have three top seeds with Ooltewah having the other two.  The remaining teams include Walker Valley, East Hamilton, Rhea County and McMinn County.

Cleveland's picks to win include Tristan Blansit at 126, Colton Landers at 132 and Jack Hicks at 170 while Soddy Daisy's trio includes Landon Wheaton at 106, Tucker Russo at 160 and Ty Boeck at 182.

Ooltewah's two include Jordan Massengill at 145 and Victor Bednarski at 220.

"We did okay during the dual-meet season.  Cleveland and Soddy Daisy are both traditionally strong teams, but I felt like we're stronger in the traditional tournaments," said Bradley coach Ben Smith, who earned his first state title last Saturday night for the Bears.

"I feel like we're in a good spot and this is the fun part of the season for us as our guys get to see the fruits of their labor pay off.  It's good to already have one (state title) in the bag and we just want to avoid a letdown at all costs. 

"Our goal is like everyone else this weekend and that's to advance as many individuals as possible," Smith said before eating lunch Tuesday afternoon at the Holiday Inn Express on Paul Huff Parkway.

Cleveland's Blue Raiders got nipped by Bradley in last year's region, but bounced back the next weekend to claim their third-straight AAA traditional state title.  The Blue Raiders, who also win three straight state duals titles, got beat in the region semis by Soddy Daisy and didn't qualify for last weekend's event, but that doesn't mean at Cleveland coach Jake Yost is ready to concede anything to anybody.

"It went about the way we expected, but we hope to qualify as many as we can," Yost expressed.

"We lost a lot of really good wrestlers from last year's team and we knew we'd be battling all year to be one of the top teams.  We have a good group who are capable of scoring a lot of points, so we'll just wait and see what happens," he added.

The Soddy Daisy Trojans regained some respectability last Saturday by finishing runner-up to Bradley.  The Trojans have come a long way since the start of the season and appear to be hitting their stride at just the right time.

Coach Jim Higgins feels pretty good about the upcoming tournament for his team.

"I'm excited about this tournament  as this is what we'll all work for," Higgins suggested.

"Nobody pays much attention to what we do until the last month.  It appears that this tournament is pretty cut and dry, but we'll go after it and see what happens.  Just like everyone else, our main goal is to get 14 of our guys back to Franklin next week as we want to bring the match to our opponents," he nodded.

While Bradley had the most top picks with six, Walker Valley had the most second seeds with four while Bradley and Soddy Daisy had two each and Cleveland two.  Ooltewah and East Hamilton both had one apiece.

Their are two wrestlers who bring perfect records to the mat on Saturday and both are defending state champs.

Bradley's Hicks is 37-0 while Soddy Daisy's Russo, a two-time defending champ, is 34-0.  Bradley's Fuller is also a defending state champ, but he's not undefeated this year.

Saturday's action begins with the ever-important weigh-ins at 9 a.m. with action set to begin at 10.  The consolation and championship finals are tentatively set for 3 p.m.

The top four individuals in every weight class advance to the state tournament, which will be held at the Williamson County Agricultural Exposition Park in Franklin next Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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