Cleveland, Baylor, Hixson aim to defend state titles

photo Bradley Central wrestler Toribio Navarro, left, grapples with Cleveland wrestler Tristian Blansit during their bout at the Region 4-AAA wrestling tournament finals. Navarro posted a 48-3 record at 113 pounds last year.

Five teams to watchBaylor: Once they get some football players into the wrestling room, the Red Raiders will be as strong as they've been in a few years, and they're defending state duals champs.Cleveland: The Blue Raiders have dominated Class AAA the last two seasons, winning both state titles each year.Gordon Lee: Brent Raby's Trojans get to taste the waters in Georgia Class AA after finishing no worse than third in Class A competition in the last 10 years.Hixson: Although their numbers are down slightly, the Wildcats won last year's Tennessee A/AA state with a fairly young group, and coach Garrick Hall has 10 returnees.McCallie: The Blue Tornado actually finished ahead of Baylor in last year's traditional tournament and return a lot of strength in the middle and upper weights.Five wrestlers to watchChris Dbien, Cleveland: A three-time state champion, most recently at 126 with a 42-2 record, he could show up anywhere from 126 to 138 depending on team needs.Caleb Mariakis, Ridgeland: The senior West Virginia University signee has battled injury the past two seasons but has his sights set squarely on winning a state title this year.Packy Mullin, Notre Dame: Wrestling at 132 last year, Mullin went through the season undefeated, finishing 27-0 and winning his first state title.Toribio Navarro, Bradley Central: He posted a 48-3 record at 113 pounds last year on his way to his second state championship.Johnny Ragsdale, Gordon Lee: The senior, who has signed with West Virginia, went undefeated a year ago, finishing 54-0 on his way to his third GHSA individual state title.

While Cleveland is looking forward to defending its Class AAA high school state wrestling championships, the approach for Hixson and Baylor is to complete 2013-2014 missions that came up short.

"That's a long way away and we have a long way to go," Cleveland coach Jake Yost said. "When you graduate three guys that were in the state finals, that's a lot of points."

Hixson and Baylor took half of their respective divisions' championship hardware, Baylor winning the Division II duals and Hixson winning the state's first A/AA traditional tournament.

"I hate to think of it as unfinished business," Baylor coach Ben Nelson said. "This year's guys have goals, and winning both state tournaments is one of them. We'll keep plugging away at it till we get to the end of the year."

Hixson finished third in the duals but then displayed an amazing comeback to win the A/AA crown.

"You can't write a Cinderella script much better than that with us scoring 60 points in two rounds of consolations," Wildcats coach Garrick Hall said. "Since they won the duals I guess most people thought Pigeon Forge was the favorite, and then we lost so many guys in the (championship) semis. For us to come back and beat them and Alcoa is unbelievable."

For the second year in a row, Cleveland won both the dual and traditional championships. In displacing Bradley Central and Soddy-Daisy as the area's dominant Class AAA teams, the Blue Raiders have finished first or second six of the last seven seasons.

How they will stack up this year is a question Yost is still mulling over.

"We have a bunch of young guys doing a great job right now. We have six returning state place-winners and several other state qualifiers," he said. "We're in a good spot. but there are some other good teams out there, I'm sure. Soddy-Daisy and Bradley are strong and Wilson Central has been strong the last few years, and I'm sure there are a few teams we don't know about that will be good."

The Division I tournaments were somewhat diluted with the long-awaited A/AA tournament finally entering the arena.

"It definitely caused everybody to have more state placers that they might have had," Yost said. "There are some really good kids in A/AA, and their champions would have been at least placers in AAA and some could probably have won. Notre Dame always has a couple of good guys.

"People think it's going to grow the sport, and I haven't done enough research to differ."

Chattanooga dominated the A/AA event. In addition to Hixson winning the title, Notre Dame was fourth, East Ridge fifth, Central sixth and Red Bank and Signal Mountain tied for seventh.

"Look at the quality kids that placed in the tournament," Hixson's Hall said. "Some of the A/AA medalists beat kids that medaled in AAA. I definitely think (adding A/AA) brought more (competitors and spectators) to the tournament."

Division II is most often a four- or five-team race whether it's the duals or the traditional tournament. The top four are expected to be Baylor, Father Ryan, Montgomery Bell Academy and McCallie.

Baylor returns three state champions in Michael Murphy (113), Blake Sutherland (160) and Ryan Parker (182).

"Ryan is so well coached and will always be a challenger, and McCallie too," Nelson said. "They have a whole group of studs in the middle of their lineup and at the top. I wouldn't be surprised to see MBA in that group. Frank (Simpson, MBA's coach) has a lot of good young wrestlers that performed well last year."

Dbien out a while

Cleveland's Chris Dbien, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga signee, will be out until late December or early January as he finishes recuperation from knee surgery performed in June.

Vandergriff Duals moved

Hixson has shifted the dates on its Roger Vandergriff Duals tournament, and it will be held Saturday. A strong field has been bolstered with the addition of perennial state power Soddy-Daisy.

The first local invitational tournament takes place on Dec. 6 at Ooltewah.

Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.

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