Greyhounds Place 8th in Brentwood Wrestling Tournament

Although the Clayton Greyhounds wrestling team managed only an eighth-place finish in the 10-team Brentwood Invitational Wrestling Tournament on Dec. 18, both Jordan Henry and Joe Bradley made the most of the opportunities that the ultra-competitive tournament provided.

Henry, who wrestled in the 145-pound weight class, and Bradley (171) each earned a second-place medal.

Bradley faced off against Notre Dame's Trevor Fultz in the championship round. Fultz won the match on points. Bradley finished the tournament with a 3-1 record.

"I could have worked better for takedowns," Bradley said. "I've been missing some practices due to my knee (injury), and I need to work on some conditioning, too."

Bradley said the second-place finish represents his best in a tournament since placing first in the University City Tournament last year.

"This is a good experience for me every year," Bradley said. "There are so many quality guys who come here. Some of them are guys I don't see throughout the year, so I really try to make the matches the best matches I can make them."

The medal-winner felt he did some things right on technique.

"When I did shoot, I made sure I set up shot right," he said. "When they shot in on me, I made sure I protected my legs and got back to a neutral standpoint."  

Henry, who finished the tournament with a 3-1 mark, faced off against Fatima's Aaron Strope in the final match and was pinned. He was unavailable for comment. Clayton wrestling coach Doug Verby said Henry did a good job and "took care of the guys in his brackets really well."  

Henry and Bradley have compiled 11-4 and 12-3 records so far this season

New Madrid (285) won the Brentwood Invitational and was followed by Notre Dame (269), Priory (256), Fatima (249), Brentwood (246), Herculaneum (219), Maplewood-Richmond Heights (205), Clayton (197), Park Hills Central (148) and Trinity Catholic (103).  

"We have some good teams here," Verby said. "Fatima had several guys ... in the finals, and so did Norte Dame and Priory. It's good to see teams that we don't normally see. We see Maplewood, Priory and Brentwood quite a few times in the year, but it's good to see teams like Notre Dame and Fatima and New Madrid." 

Verby said that he thinks his team turned in a better performance than in the but that he also sees room for improvement.

"We didn't give away as many matches as we did at Burroughs, but we definitely didn't wrestle as well as we could have," he said. "We could have gotten a few more guys in the finals. We have a lot to do over the (Christmas) break."

Montel Harris (160), James Dillon (152) and Caleb Grady (125) each placed fourth for Clayton at Brentwood. Harris, Dillon and Grady went 3-1 in the tournament, and Grady went 2-2.

"My fourth-place guys did a great job," Verby said. "Montel Harris stepped up for us at the last minute at 160. He went 3-1 in his pool and ended up qualifying for the third-place match. He did an excellent job, considering this is his first place in a tournament of the year. James Dillon at 152 got a couple of pins early on and qualified for the third-place match. Grady, he took care of some good wrestlers and wrestled tough all day. He's one of our hardest workers."

Harris has a 3-2 record on the season. Grady and Dillon have compiled 11-4 and 5-3 records. Harris and Dillon recently started competing, as they spent the earlier part of the season trying to weigh in at their respective weight classes.

Verby said his team needs to work on conditioning over the holiday break and "learn to be more aggressive" in order to turn losses into wins.

The Greyhounds will return to action at 5 p.m. Jan. 4 in a quad meet against St. Clair, Winfield and Principia at Principia.