7th ANNUAL
BRENDAN GRANT MEMORIAL WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

Saturday, 5 January 2008 in Belmont, Massachusetts

 The seventh Annual Brendan Grant Memorial Wrestling Tournament was held at Belmont High School all day on Saturday 5 January 2008. As has been the case in previous years, once again the efforts of numerous hard-working volunteers along with a field of strong competitors resulted in a successful tournament.

 This tournament was first held in January 1981, and was renamed in 2002 as a tribute to Brendan Grant who was a member of the wrestling team for four years and a senior captain in the 1999-2000 season. Thus, while this is the 7th Annual tournament named after Brendan, overall it is the 27th Annual Belmont Wrestling Tournament. 

 The format for the event was similar to to previous year's, and included the following sixteen New England area high school teams:  Algonquin Regional (Northborough, MA), Arlington MA, Belmont MA (host team), Boston College High (Boston, MA), Catholic Memorial (West Roxbury, MA), Concord/Carlisle MA, East Providence RI, Hingham MA, Josiah Quincy Upper School (Boston, MA), Keefe Tech (Framingham MA), Lexington MA, Malden MA, Masconomet (Topsfield, MA), Needham MA, Newton North (Newton, MA), and Tri-County Vocational (Franklin, MA).

 At the end of the day, the first place team winner was tournament new-comer Josiah Quincy Upper School with 180.0 team points. Second place went to Catholic Memorial with 175.5 points, and placing third was Arlington at 147.0 points. The remaining teams finishing 4th through 16th were: #4 BC High (123.5), #5 Masconomet  (122.5), #6 Hingham (121.0), #6 Needham (121.0), #8 Lexington (108.0), #9 Newton North (96.0), #10 Tri-County (90.0), #11 Concord/Carlisle (88.5), #12 East Providence (85.0); #13 Belmont (72.0), #14 Keefe Tech (64.0), #15 Algonquin Regional (61.0), and #16 Malden  (43.0).

This year’s “outstanding wrestler” award went to 130 lb. weight class wrestler Richard Wingert of Catholic Memorial from West Roxbury, MA, based on the vote of all the team coaches in attendance.  The Belmont host squad had several contenders in the winners circle for their respective weight class. In the 119 lb slot Tom Leo placed fourth, at 145 lb Larry Susharian placed 5th, at 189 lb Joe LoRusso placed 6th, and at Heavyweight Alex Chipman-Schervish led all of the host team wrestlers by coming in 3rd.

In January 2002 the tournament was renamed in honor of Brendan Grant, BHS class of 2000, and who passed away tragically in June of 2001. Brendan was a devoted member of the Tournament's host wrestling squad during all four of his high school years, and during the 1999-2000 season he was one of the team captains that led the squad to one of their more successful seasons in years.

 Overall, this year's 2008 invitational wrestling tournament was once again a great success.