CLEVELAND, Tenn. - At the Region 4-AAA wrestling tournament, it was Bradley Central and then the rest.
"Bradley had a pretty good day and pretty much took it to everybody else," Cleveland coach Jake Yost said.
The Bears advanced 13 to the Class AAA state tournament, which starts Thursday in Franklin, and ran up 233.5 points to capture Saturday's team championship in the high school tournament held at Cleveland Middle School.
"I don't know if anybody has been as good in a while as Bradley's been this year," Soddy-Daisy assistant coach Brad Laxton observed.
The Bears left everybody, including state duals runner-up Soddy-Daisy, in their wake. The Trojans finished second with 168 points and host Cleveland was third with 126. Walker Valley chugged to the finish with 105 points to take fourth, barely slipping past upstart East Hamilton (101.5), which qualified a school-record nine wrestlers for state.
"The previous best was four," Hurricanes coach Ryan Cooper said. "We had a good day."
Ooltewah finished with 82 points and Rhea County 30. McMinn County failed to score in what is generally regarded as one of the toughest regions in the state.
"There's Soddy-Daisy and Cleveland. Whatever they're ranked now, they're among the top five teams in the state," Bradley coach Ben Smith said. "Then you throw in a hot East Hamilton team with good Walker Valley and Ooltewah squads, it's a tough tournament.
"Yes, there are only eight teams, but there have been years when four or five of us finish in the top 10 at the state. This tournament? You're wrestling some of the top-ranked kids in the state almost every match."
The Bears notched seven individual championships and also had three runners-up.
Soddy-Daisy is taking 12 wrestlers to state, East Hamilton nine, Cleveland eight, Walker Valley seven, Ooltewah five and Rhea County two. Four of Ooltewah's five qualifiers were finalists, although only 220-pound Victor Bednarski walked away with a championship.
Bradley winners were T.J. Hicks (113), Ryan McElhaney (120), Knox Fuller (138), Austin Mathews (145), Donnie Beyer (152), Brett Brown (195) and D.J. Adams (285).
"We focused this week on staying healthy, getting our weight down, fine-tuning and keeping the mood light," Smith said. "It's one of those things if we get (to Franklin) healthy and on weight that we could do good things. Today was proof of that."
Fuller and Soddy-Daisy's Tucker Russo (160) were named the tournament's outstanding lower- and upper-weight outstanding wrestlers.
Joining Russo as champions from Soddy-Daisy were Charles Wheaton (106) and Ty Boeck (182).
Cleveland, which had five finalists, got championships from Triston Blansit (126), and Jack Hicks (170). Walker Valley's Joseph Munoz (132) was the other champion.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.