East/Middle openers
LegendBattle Ground Academy (BGA), Baylor (Bay), Franklin Road Academy (FRA), McCallie (McC), Montgomery Bell Academy (MBA), Friendship Christian (FC), Knoxville Webb (KW), Pope John Paul II (PJP), St. Andrew’s-Sewanee (SAS).106 poundsAlex Whitworth (McC) vs. Ethan Rhoden (FRA); Frank Perazinni (MBA) vs. Clayton Pettway (Bay).113 poundsPorter Kaufman (Bay) vs. Brock Brown (PJP)-Harrison Noffsinger (FSCH) winner; Eddie Suh (McC) vs. Adam Garfinkle (MBA).120 poundsGabriel Elkin (MBA) vs. Elijah Andrews (SAS)-Chase Radpour (Bay) winner;Mark Austin (FRA) vs. Zach Ward (McC).126 poundsMichael Elkin (MBA) vs. Lucas Farr (KW)-Evan Hughes (McC) winner; Tiy Reed (BGA)-Ziyin Tang (SAS) winner vs. Hayden Hartline (Bay).132 poundsBrock Herring (McC) vs. Henry McLeod (PJP); Johathan Stoaxtill-Diggs (FRA) vs. Zach McCullough (BGA); Zack Tieng (KW)-Luke Fraley (Bay) winner vs. John Michael Glover (MBA).138 poundsAustin Atchley (Bay) vs. Stephen Vickers (FRA); Dolan Eckhart (BGA) vs. Devin Badgett (KW)145 poundsBryce Wittman (MBA) vs. Conner Mitchell (BGA); Alex Atchley (Bay) vs. Thomas Sell (McC).152 poundsMason Reiniche (Bay) vs. Kolton Grimsley (BGA)-Braeden Wirthwein (KW) winner; Perry Matthews (MBA) vs. Hayden Alexander (FS), Drew White (FRA) vs. Ethan Dendy (McC).160 poundsConnor Duffy (Bay) vs. Camden Frankfather (FRA), Gavin Connors (BGA) vs. Austin Tomlinson (FS), Charlie Morton (KW) vs. Ben Dotye (MBA)-Russell Barry (McC) winner.170 poundsKhamari Whimper (Bay) vs. Kendall Warpoel (FRA); Elijah Ball (FS) vs. Justin Sofilkanich (BGA); Clay Garstin (MBA) vs. Domonick Rollins (PJP), Christian Taylor (SAS) vs. Hayden Rowland (McC).182 poundsJudah Duhm (McC) vs. James Lindiau (SAS), Eli Davies (KW) vs. Teddy Holloway (BGA). Dominic Fisher (MBA)-Deuce Drennan (PJP) winner vs. Riley Westlake (Bay).195 poundsRyan Kosson (MBA) vs. Justin Elgouhary (SAS)-Matt Patterson (PJP) winner; Sam Reynolds (Bay)-Stone Cummins (KW) vs. George Robinson (McC).220 poundsTyree Toliver (Bay) vs. Tysosn Strickland (FS); Adam Smith (McC) vs. Wyeth Patton (MBA).285 poundsRiver Henry (McC)-Charles Albert (PJP) vs. Ryan Jackson (FS); Riley Bodine (Bay) vs. Jackson Lampley (MBA)-Tymon Mitchell (FRA) winner.
The last time McCallie hosted Division II's East/Middle Regionwrestling tournament, the Blue Tornado qualified 12 for the state tournament but finished a disappointing third in the region team standings.
There are those who believe McCallie will fare better this time around.
When asked who should be favored for the team championship, rival Baylor coach Ben Nelson never wavered as he replied.
"McCallie," he said. "They've earned that. They made it to the (state duals) finals last weekend, and they had the most consistent performance during the season."
Baylor and host McCallie are two of nine teams participating in today's tournament, which begins at noon with championship and consolation finals expected to begin at about 4 p.m. The other teams are Battle Ground Academy, Franklin Road Academy, Friendship Christian, Knoxville Webb, Montgomery Bell Academy and St. Andrew's-Sewanee.
While the primary point of interest is qualifying as many wrestlers as possible for next weekend's state tournament, winning the region team championship remains a jewel not to be dismissed.
Whether it belongs to McCallie is up for contention, at least where Blue Tornado coach Mike Newman is concerned.
"It's going to be a battle whoever wins it," he said, specifically mentioning Baylor as a fierce threat. "I think also you have to include MBA. They're a solid, quality lineup."
The three have all of the tournament's top-seeded wrestlers: Baylor with six, McCallie and MBA with four each.
Based on the seeds and with the top four from each weight class advancing to the state, McCallie will take 14, Baylor 13 and MBA 12, leaving 27 slots for the remaining seven teams.
"I'm not a huge fan of this (qualifying) tournament, but hopefully all our guys will show up and wrestle well and we'll move 14 to next week," Nelson said. "We're a grinder-type team. We're not the best at every weight class, but we have guys that are going to get in there and scrap."
There are some surprises, at least from the standpoint of wrestlers dropping from weight classes they occupied most of the season. McCallie eighth-grader Alex Whitworth is the top seed at 106 pounds after wrestling much of the year at 113. Baylor's Mason Reiniche wrestled for the first time this year at 152 pounds at the state duals, and that's where he'll be this weekend and next, and the Red Raiders' Khamari Whimper, who wrestled at 195 at the duals, will weigh in at 170 for the region.
One of the tournament's highlight matches could come at 152 if Reiniche and McCallie's unbeaten Ethan Dendy follow the projections and reach the championship finals.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.