GRAY DEYOSports Writer

The Wildcats from Jan. 9-10 competed in what may have been the toughest tournament they have faced all year, the Johnny Drennan Memorial. They had ups and downs throughout the event, but overall did solidly. Out of the 51 teams in attendance, Tullahoma came in 27^th place.

Fitting 51 teams all into one venue at Father Ryan was difficult enough, but coming away with a victory on the seven mats at the event proved to be maybe even more difficult. The pool of teams featured at the Johnny Drennan Memorial tournament included some of the top high school squads from Tennessee, as well as top schools from six other states. Inside the Wildcats’ 27^th-place finish as a team at this stacked event, they had a couple of wrestlers excel in their individual weight brackets, those being Kiivon Butler and Zach Murphy.

Both Murphy and Butler had the two highest individual placements out of all the wrestlers on the team at the event, both securing eighth place. Butler, in the entirety of the tournament, in seven matches, not including a round where he got a bye, went 4-3 overall. In his wins, he had one win by pin, two by technical fall, and one by medical decision. Murphy at the tournament went 3-3. Two of his wins came by pin, and his other victory came from a 15-0 technical fall.

Outside of Murphy and Butler, here are other Wildcat wrestlers who logged wins at the Johnny Drennan, again excluding byes: Chandler Minor, Neyland Dalton, Sayvion Surles, Bradley Goodwin, Dwayne Cook, Knox Grimes, Elijah Horton, and Memphis Oswald.