KISSIMMEE – Powered by undefeated outings in four days of national caliber wrestling by senior Keath Sawdo and sophomore Lou Gagliardo and 13-1 performances from Chris Merring and Peyton Hughes, the Clay High Team Clay wrestling team punched out a tough second place finish Saturday morning in the small school Community I division at the AAU Scholastic Duals Wrestling High School National Championships held at Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports arenas.

“The bottom end of our lineup, from Lou Gagliardo at 106 through Keath Sawdo at 145, all came to practice four days a week for a month and that made the difference,” said Team Clay coach Jim Reape, who has finished as close as third at Disney with a handful of fifth place finishes in past Disney visits. “They came, worked hard,

competed and made some fine tuning along the way to be able to execute like they did at Disney. Unfortunately, we did not have Kaleb Collins at 195 to an injury so we had to work that much harder to make up for his six points in each match.”

Sawdo, 14-0 for the week with four pins, led the Team Clay squad from the first match that featured Clay winning their first four matches decisively with a barrage of 24 pins that set the tone for Team Clay.

“We coached them to end matches as fast as possible,” said Reape. “In a tournament as rugged as this, with day two having most of the teams wrestling four or five matches, we told them to get off the mat as fast as possible and get ready for the next one.”

For his unbeaten streak, Sawdo, fifth last year in Class 1A and 0-2 in Class 2A (Middleburg) in 2015, was awarded an All-American Gold status as well as Gagliardo while Merring and Hughes both earned All-American Silver honors with one loss.

“Keath has progressed the last two years to a just-miss at state to a state placer to a legit elite wrestler in Florida,” said Reape. “At state last year, he had a gauntlet of guys in front of him that was probably the toughest bracket lineup of anyone, but he learned to wrestle tough and it showed at Disney.”

Merring’s loss was to unbeaten Jacob Edwards of Troy Christian (15-0). Hughes’ lone loss was to Pool champion Rootstown Raiders’ Dalton Leightner who finished at 12-1 who Hughes later beat in the championship bracket.

Gagliardo rifled through his first five Pool matches, but was concussed in match five forcing a concussion protocol situation that had him miss the remaining two Pool matches and the first two championship bracket matches. Gagliardo was cleared and returned to the lineup to finish with an 8-0 record and an All-American medal. Athletes were awarded All-American Gold, Silver, Bronze and Copper status with finishes of zero losses, one loss, two losses and three losses with at least six matches.

“Lou got banged up in the Pool rounds and we had him checked out, but they needed a doctor to green light him and noone was immediately available,” said Reape. “After some tense moments, we got him cleared after a bunch of forfeits to the team.”

Also earning All-American honors were Dalton Wright at 152, Billy Jenkins at 160 and Caleb Wyman. Jenkins, a sixth place 1A medalist for Suwannee High School, was Clay’s only add-on athlete.

Clay’s first team loss, 6-1 in Pool play, came in a round five 35-25 loss to Rootstown Raiders of Ohio that put Team Clay as second finisher in their Pool O gathering of teams such as Rootstown, Eastwood (OH), Illinois Top Dawgs (IL), NC Freakz (NC), Team Iowa White (IA), Talon Wrestling (FL) and Orange City (FL) who all finished third through eighth, respectively. The Rootstown loss was later avenged with a 35-22 win in the penultimate round of championship wrestling.

“We found out that their 170 guy was a stud and we changed up our lineup to maximize points,” said Reape. “Peyton lost in his first Rootstown matchup, but won in the second meeting and we got some points off the lineup change.”

In one of the more dramatic matches of the week, freshman heavyweight Michael Carns preserved a Team Clay win against Eastwood in Pool round four with a pin off a quick trip and fall to score a 36-30 win for Clay. Clay had opened with a 30-0 lead before letting Eastwood tie at 30-30 prior to Carns’ match.

“He just went in, tripped the guy and he fell,” said Clay coach Hunter Hill. “We kind of fell asleep in the middle of that match and he came through.”

In the championship bracket, Team Clay beat Troy Christian (OH), Oak Harbor (OH), Valley City (ND) in the first three rounds, but lost to eventual national champion Tomahawk Wrestling (OH) in round four. Team Clay rebounded with a resounding 35-22 win over Rootstown before finishing off Tallahassee Noles (FL) to secure second place. Rootstown, who also lost to Tomahawk Wrestling in their round seven match, would finish fourth behind Oak Harbor with Tallahassee Noles fifth, Valley City sixth, Troy Christian seventh and Westerville United (OH) eighth.

Community II, a small school division of the AAU Scholastic Duals, had 34 teams competing.

Team Clay Won/Lost records

106: Lou Gagliardo (8-0, 5 pins)

113: Chris Merring 13-1 (3 pins)

120: Peyton Hughes 13-1 (11 pins)

126: Christian Downs 10-4, (6 pins)

132: Cody Taylor 7-7 (4 pins)

138: Justin Merring 8-6 (5 pins)

145: Keath Sawdo (14-0, 5 pins)

152: Dalton Wright (10-2, 6 pins)

152: Garrett Weseman (1-1, 1 pin)

160: Billy Jenkins (9-1, 6 pins)

160: Garrett Weseman (4-0, 3 pins)

170: Max Beavor (11-3, 2 pins at 170; 0-1 at 182)

182: Abbott Taylor (7-7, 6-6 at 182, 6 pins; 1-1 at 195)

195: Forfeits (No wrestler)

220: Kurt Jackson (7-7, 3 pins)

285: Michael Carns (6-8, 2 pins)

Note: Caleb Wyman was awarded an All-American medal, but has no official records from the tournament.