8th ANNUAL
BRENDAN GRANT MEMORIAL WRESTLING TOURNAMENT

Saturday, 10 January 2009 in Belmont, Massachusetts

07jan_wrestling_tourn_010.jpg (59185 bytes) The eighth Annual Brendan Grant Memorial Wrestling Tournament was held at Belmont High School all day on Saturday 10 January 2009. 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.
07jan_wrestling_tourn_031.jpg (102560 bytes)
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 seasons. Thus, while this is the 8th Annual tournament named after Brendan, overall it is the 28th Annual Belmont Wrestling Tournament.

The format for the event was similar to previous years, and included the following sixteen New England area high school teams: Andover 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), Lexington MA,
Malden MA, Masconomet (Topsfield, MA), Needham MA, Newton North (Newton, MA), North Quincy (Quincy, MA), and Woburn MA.  The history of tournament results from 2003 to 2009 are available for download here.

At the end of the day, the first place team winner was a power-house squad from Needham MA with 178.5 team points. Second place went to last year’s champion Josiah Quincy Upper School with 154.0 points, and placing third was Arlington at 140.0 points. The remaining teams finishing 4th through 16th were: #4 Catholic Memorial (133.0); #5 Belmont (130.0), #6 East Providence (120.0), #7 North Quincy (118.5), #8 Masconomet (114.5), #9 Concord/Carlisle (99.0), #10 Andover (96.0), #11 Woburn (95.0), #1207jan_wrestling_tourn_026.jpg (91710 bytes) Lexington (86.0), #12 Newton North (86.0), #14 Hingham (79.0), #15 BC High (48.5), #16 Malden (48.0). The overall ranking of each team participating in the tournament since 2003 is available for download here.

This year’s “outstanding wrestler” award went to 215 lb. weight class wrestler Josh Boyd of Catholic Memorial from West Roxbury, MA, based on the vote of all the team coaches in attendance. A summary of the top six 2009 wrestlers in each weight class is available for download here.

The host Belmont squad had seven wrestlers in the winner’s circle for their respective weight class. Although none of the Belmont wrestlers finished top in their weight class, this was the best overall team showing that Belmont has had in recent years with Belmont wrestlers finishing in half of the 14 weight classes, and allowing Belmont to finish 5th out of 16 teams. With only one graduating senior, the Belmont squad shows strong promise for next year. The details of the Belmont wrestlers finishing in the top 07jan_wrestling_tourn_043.jpg (81808 bytes)six slots were: 103 lb slot Sami Baghdady placed 2nd;
135 lb Mark Torosian placed 4th; 140 lb Julian Lockwood placed 4th; 145 lb Larry Susharian placed 2nd; 171 lb Tim Hatch placed 2nd; 189 lb Joe Canina placed 6th; and Heavyweight Brian Conneely placed 4th.

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 2009 invitational wrestling tournament was once again a great success.