Although Stone Memorial has the most returning qualifiers from the 2015 Tennessee Class AAA wrestling tournament, Bradley Central coach Ben Smith can hardly wait to begin working on the 2015-16 season.
Stone Memorial has 11 returning qualifiers but none medaled. Bradley Central's 10 wrestlers give it the second-most returning qualifiers, but the Bears also have seven returning medalists -- a group that includes 2015 champions T.J. Hicks (106) and Knox Fuller (126).
The Bears, runners-up to Cleveland in the team race, also have a runner-up in 182-pound Brett Brown along with a third-place finisher, two fifth-place winners and a sixth-place medalist.
Cleveland, which has among its graduating seniors champions Chris DeBien and Ezra Taylor along with runner-up Koran Kennedy. However, the Blue Raiders have the second-most returning medalists behind Bradley with four.
Other teams likely to be mentioned in early conversations include Soddy-Daisy (seven returnees, two medalists), Tennessee (nine), Gibbs (nine), Halls (eight) and Heritage (eight). Walker Valley returns six qualifiers and two medalists.
There were some agonizing moments for defending champion Hixson, which held the A/AA lead until the final three or four matches. The Wildcats finished runner-up to Pigeon Forge by 8.5 points. They were unable to cash in on four individual title chances and are still looking for their first state champion since 1990.
The 2016 A/AA tournament shapes up for now with Pigeon Forge as the early favorite with challenges expected from Alcoa and Hixson. Red Bank, Notre Dame and Central also could figure into the title race. Alcoa, Hixson, Red Bank and Notre Dame each boast six returning medalists, and four of those for the Irish will be returning champions. However, Pigeon Forge has five among its 11 likely qualifiers.
That Pigeon Forge number could be reduced to 10 pending the outcome of discipline from the TSSAA against the school from an incident stemming from a Friday night fracas. A wrestler and a school representative sitting in one of the matside coaches' chairs were ejected for flagrant misconduct. The wrestler pushed one of the referees and the school representative threw one chair and punted another to an adjacent mat.
Division II could again belong to 2015 champion Father Ryan, which handed coach Pat Simpson his 17th state title.
The Purple Irish had 12 returning qualifiers, 11 of them having earned medals over the weekend.
Christian Brothers has 10 returning qualifiers (five medalists) while Baylor has eight returning qualifiers, all of them medalists. MBA has eight returning qualifiers (seven medalists) and McCallie seven (six medalists).
Baylor senior 160-pounder Blake Sutherland was named outstanding wrestler for Division II. The AAA winner was Blackman's Tyler Garrison, a University of Tennessee at Chattanooga commitment. The A/AA winner was Alcoa junior Karim Shereef (160).
Best match awards went to AAA 138-pounders Ezra Taylor of Cleveland and Chris Rowland of Ravenwood, Division II 152-pounders Will Patton of McCallie and Marcello Morrice of Father Ryan and A/AA 138-pounders Tyler Christian of Harpeth and Gary Reagan of Pigeon Forge.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.