Led by six medalists, Team Tennessee had an excellent showing this weekend at the national prep wrestling championship (in Lehigh, Pa.) as Baylor wrestlers gained three medals, followed by Father Ryan with one and MBA with one.
Competing in the 80th anniversary tournament, four seeded wrestlers from Tennessee exceeded their seed - Michael Murphy, Blake Sutherland, Ryan Parker and Gabriel Elkin. Cayman Seagraves was seeded fifth and placed fifth. Trey Chalifoux was seeded seventh and placed eighth.
Every Tennessee wrestler won at least one match in the two-day event.
Team Tennessee Medalists
Baylor:
No.4 Michael Murphy 3rd, (138)... reached the championship semis ... only loss was to the eventual national champion ...
No.6 Blake Sutherland, 4th (160) .. reached the championship quarters ..
No.5 Cayman Seagraves 5th (170) ... reached the championship semis
No. 7 Ryan Parker 3rd (195) ... reached the championship quarters
Father Ryan: No.7 Trey Chalifoux, 8th (120) ... reached the championship quarters
MBA: No.12 Gabriel Elkin, 6th (113) ... reached the championship quarters
History: First Champion: Newton HS (NJ) in 1935 ... Baylor first took a team in 1947 ... McCallie took two seniors in 1959 ... Big Blue's Pat Smartt won it all in 1959, becoming the first Southern champ .. He went on to be an All-American at Lehigh Univ in 1963 ..
Baylor won a team title in 1970 its last appearance prior to 2014 ... McCallie's best finish was second in 1968 ... The two schools have a combined 18 individual national champs.
Monday Night - Greater Chattanooga Sports HOF: McCallie national pre champs Luther Killian ('68) and Steve Gross ('69) will be inducted as part of the class of 2015.
contact B.B. Branton at william.branton@comcast.net