To absolutely no one’s surprise, Bradley Central will carry the favorite’s target into the Tennessee Division I high school wrestling tournament this week in Franklin.
“Walking into the arena on Thursday, Bradley has to be the favorite, and they know it,” Soddy-Daisy coach Steve Henry said.
The defending state champion Bears qualified all 14 of their wrestlers and came away from Saturday’s Region 3 tournament with nine champions, three runners-up and two third-place finishers.
The state tournament begins Thursday afternoon with the rounds of 32 and 16 for Division I teams. Division II teams begin their tournament Friday. Championship finals for each are set to begin at 7 p.m. EST Saturday.
Price of admission is $8 Thursday and Friday and $10 on Saturday, and parking is $5 per car per day.
In addition to moving the tournament from Chattanooga to the Williamson County Agricultural Expo, the TSSAA has abandoned a two-year test with 10 regions. There are eight regions with four qualifiers per weight class from each, so region champions and runners-up will face fourth- and third-place qualifiers from other regions.
Bradley coach Steve Logsdon confirmed Monday that he had looked at the brackets.
“I’d like to hope we’d be in the top five,” he said. “I also have looked at teams I expect to finish in the top five and see how their draws shaped up. Cleveland obviously will be in there. Soddy-Daisy has a dang good team, Science Hill has a strong team and Collierville looked good at the state duals.
“Cleveland and Soddy-Daisy, though, have been there. They’re traditionally good. They know how to get things accomplished.”
Collierville faced Cleveland while Science Hill squared off with Bradley in the Class AAA state duals semifinals less than two weeks ago. Once Cleveland had its championship final berth secured, the Blue Raiders forfeited the last four matches. Bradley was up 41 points before Science Hill scored a point, and the Bears skated easily into the championship match they wound up winning in a close battle with Cleveland.
“It’s a state tournament so you don’t expect any slouches, but I’d say if a kid draws a first-round match with Bradley Central or Soddy-Daisy, then they got a bad draw,” Cleveland coach Eric Phillips said. “Bradley has 14 wrestlers, and I’d put their 14 up against anybody else’s. They have won everything they entered this season and they’re defending champions, so until somebody beats them they’re the favorite. We’re going to take our dozen and see what we can do.”
No other team qualified 14 or came close to the Bears’ nine region champions. Science Hill has 13 qualifiers with six champions, Collierville 13 with four champions, Cleveland 12 with three champions, Soddy-Daisy 10 with five champions, Rossview 10 with two champions and Franklin 10 with one champ.
“Cleveland is going to be right there in the hunt, but numbers for the rest of us are definitely important,” Henry said. “There could be a big gain in points just from that first round.”
Other teams that have to be considered as possible top-five finishers would be Independence, Ravenwood and Ooltewah.
“Ooltewah is only going with seven, but (coach Wendell Weathers) has fighters,” Henry said. “Those kids are warriors, and most of them have been there and have shown what they can do.”
Independence has eight qualifiers with seven region finalists, including four champions, while Ravenwood has nine qualifiers but only four region finalists.