Baylor, McCallie, Cleveland 2018 state wrestling favorites?
Baylor and McCallie had a handful of wrestlers at Lehigh University to compete in the Prep Nationals and Cleveland was back in the wrestling room on Monday.
The trio figure to be among state championship favorites next season.
Although losing state champions — Baylor’s Khamari Whimper and McCallie’s Judah Duhm and Ethan Dendy — both have nine qualifiers returning from this year’s Division II tournament.
Cleveland had 14 Class AAA state qualifiers and returns 11 of those plus 2016 tournament third-place finisher Logan Whiteside.
“I’m excited. We actually got going (Monday),” Blue Raiders coach Josh Bosken said. “We’re eager to improve on this year. We have zero issues off the mat and high effort on the mat. I hope we have great leadership so we can continue what we started. I think we’ll have a fun year.”
Among the returners is heavyweight Titus Swafford. He finished a surprising fourth in the regional and lost his first match in the state before reeling off seven wins to finish third.
Teams that may challenge the Blue Raiders’ quest to return to the state’s championship spot include defending champ and biggest rival Bradley Central; Soddy-Daisy, which finished third in the region behind the two powerhouses; and Science Hill, which like Bradley and Cleveland returns four medalists from the tournament that concluded Saturday evening.
Soddy-Daisy “has a pretty good flock returning,” Trojans coach Jim Higgins said. “We have some kids that nobody saw much of this year. We do have experienced wrestlers coming back. Right off hand, yeah, I’d say Cleveland would be the favorite but Bradley will be competitive — I’ve seen their JV guys. Will we be in the chase? We’ll find out when we get there.”
Soddy-Daisy will return to work in about three weeks to hit, like many of its peers, the freestyle and Greco spring seasons.
Of the 13-man Tennessee contingent at the prep nationals, six were from McCallie — Duhm, River Henry, Dendy, Brock Herring, Thomas Sell and Zach Ward — and Whimper and Mason Reiniche were going from Baylor.
Each will return nine 2017 medalists for next season, as will Christian Brothers. Defending champ Father Ryan has five and Montgomery Bell Academy six.
McCallie is the only team with more than one returning champion (Alex Whitworth, Henry) but Christian Brothers has four returning runners-up.
The move to D-II
In Class A/AA, the number of returning medalists is pared because of the move to Division II by, among others, Boyd-Buchanan, Notre Dame and Chattanooga Christian.
“I think there are good programs,” Mike Newman said of the D-II additions. “Boyd-Buchanan is going to be solid with Shane (coach Shane Turner) over there and Notre Dame will be strong.”
Turner, who just finished his first season at Boyd-Buchanan by getting its first state champ (Zane Williams), knows the A/AA teams are stepping up in competition.
“It’s a different world and we’ll be a David facing Goliath in every match,” he said. “We’ll be facing programs that have four or five coaches and quadruple our enrollment.”
He then offered an interesting perspective.
“If you divided D-II (wrestling) at 450 (students) you’d have 16 small-school teams. Wrestling is the only D-II sport that is not divided for the postseason,” he said.
When reminded there was a Division II-A invitational at the state duals, he took it as an affront.
“It would be an embarrassment to even be a part of that. It’s a smack in the face.”
While the move of schools strengthens D-II ranks, it won’t necessarily cause a drop in talent in A/AA.
Area A/AA teams are being split into other regions.
Brainerd, Central, Hixson, Sale Creek and Tyner are going into Region 2 with Alcoa, Cumberland County, Greenback, Kingston and Livingston Academy. East Ridge, Howard, Red Bank, Sequatchie County, Signal Mountain and Whitwell are moving into Region 3 with Eagleville, East Nashville, Forrest, Nolensville and Stratford.
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.