buc_3g

Before anyone start ranking the wrestlers in this region, a few questions needs to be answered. 1. Will Maplewood wrestle a complete schedule? 2. Can TSB and DCA fill a roster and compete as separate teams? 3. Did Cane Ridge get any good sophmores from Antioch? 4. Will Thomas Holman and Roy Watts return to the mat for McGavock? 5. And if so, at what weights? But since these questions can't be answered until the season starts, I will give my picks. 1. East Lit (they have to strongest returning team) 2. Glencliff (only because they look better on paper) 3. Antioch (always tough. lost five good seniors from last years team) 4. Hunters Lane (they look good, will not be surprised if they finish top 2) 5. McGavock (if there top guys return, they can make it hard for #3 & #4) 6. Maplewood (if they wrestle a complete schedule, they have enough raw athletic talent to beat the lower tier teams) 7. MLK (not strong, but if they get enough athletes to coop from Pearl-Cohn they could move a notch or two) 8. Cane Ridge (young, but they shouldn't be ignored.) 9. Hume Fogg 10. DCA 11. TSB 12. Whites Creek 13. Pearl-Cohn (coop w/MLK) 14. Stratford (coop w/East Lit)

07/08 wt 103 Ridley 119 Aguilar 125 Cuffman 130 Jones 145 Adafe 152 Hinkle 160 Gamble 189 Ferguson 215 Garrett 285 Moore possibles: 112 Aguilar (103, but wrestled 112 in duals) 140 Garrett ????

Top A/AA teams 1. Hixson (returns alot. they will be tough to beat) 2. East Literature (returns 10 possibly 12 starters from team that finished 3rd the past two years) 3. Greenback (solid program, everybody love the "Nation", but lost to East Lit. twice last year) 4. Seymour (good team, but not strong enough to win state) 5. Harpeth (returns alot wrestlers, could be a sleeper) 6. Notre Dame (good team, but not enough to make back to the finals) 7. Lipscomb (young, will make it to state but not contend)

East Lit beat MBA at the MBA duals last year and they have at least 10 starters returning. MBA maybe better than last year, but there are alot of D1 schools that are stronger.

East Lit is a new and young team overall, but none of their starters or top backups are new to the field. Their freshmen players are coming off a team that only lost 1 game in the city championship. 5 of their defensive starters, started for Stratford (They were not as bad as their record indicated) including an all metro selection DL/LB and a DB who would had been Stratfords two top defensive returners this year. So, East Lit is a new program and most of their team maybe young, but they are not inexperience. If Sequatchie wins this game they will have beat a good varsity team and if they lose then they will have lost to a good and well coached varsity team.

Brad, your website has Jones (MLK) 3rd at 135. Lett (ELM) won that match. Looking at the State brackets, it appears that they have Lett as the 4th place finisher instead of Jones.

I think every bracket will be interesting: at 119, if Lillard is #1 and Rucker is #2 based on head to head, then #3 has to be Aguilar. Ashmun may have a good record, but if he has not beaten any of the top 3, then he is a #4 or #5. at 135 (the toughest weight five returning state qualifiers, but only 3 will make it this year.), I think all the coaches will agree on Osaitille #1. I think Lett is #2 and Steiner #3 because the only tournament they competed together at, Lett finished higher beating the guy Steiner lost too. I know non-region common opponents does not count, but that is the only comparison I can think of between these two. Also, Lett is returning runnerup at same weight and Steiner was runnerup at a lower weight. at 145, semi-finals will be good. #1 Mintlow, #4 Hussein, #2 Jones, #3 Chandler. at 152, I think Tresner is #1, Hinkle is #2 and Burnley #3. Clemons will be a factor at #4, but he has not shown me anything this year. at 189, I think Smith (HL) moving down was a good move. He matches up better against Ferguson (ELM) than he did against Pegram (GL). at 285, this weight is always a coin toss. Any one of these guys can be champion on a good day.

130 Corey Jones (EL) Nich Johnson (MLK) ??????? (HL) Muniz (GLN) 152 Tresner (Ant) Hinkle (EL) Burnley (MLK) 189 Smith (HL) Ferguson (EL) Caldwell (ANT) 215 Pegram (GLN) Garrett (EL) Rhodes (ANT)

I think Cliff Lett would do better againse David Grahm; not because Cliff is a better wrestler, but because his style of wrestling. Scott Osatille will give Cliff a very tough match and will win if one or two thing are not corrected from last year. Everything will be settled Saturday.

Congrats to Antioch and East Lit. Antioch one win from placing is impressive. East Lit. 3rd place finish is huge (bigger than last year) because nobody outside of Nashville gave them a chance. After everyone finishes beating each other up this weekend. Maybe Region 7's top individuals can go to Chattanooga and really make some noise. Good luck to everyone at Regions.

Nick Burnley had to miss the sectional and one other match date and I believe MLK had one scheduled this week and maybe one next week. So, I think he will be eligible for regions.

Pegram lost E.J. Smith (Hunters Lane) early in the season, but has since beaten him at least two times. Pegram also won a close match again Nicholas Garrett (East Lit.). That might have something to do with Pegram not being ranked, because although both of these kids are tough competitors, they are not considered tough outside of region 7. So, even if Pegram is not ranked in the top six during the season, I think he will be in the top six at the end of the State tournament.

Good luck to Glencliff. I think they will beat Tullahoma. The A/AA Sectional is tonight at FRA. Starts at 5pm ??? Lipscomb vs. MLK East Lit. vs. FRA Then the winners wrestle and the losers wrestle.

East Lit was not at 100%, but 100% would not have made a difference.

I don't know the scores but I do know Clarksville def. East Lit and Harpeth. East Lit def. Harpeth.