MV senior making an impact on wrestling mat

Posted by Quentin Jodie | Jan 22, 2015 | Wrestling |

Monument Valley’s Clayton Bryant gains the upper hand on Ben Lazele of Peoria at the Doc Wright Invitational in Winslow, Ariz. Bryant has emerged as one the Mustangs top wrestler. (Times photo – Paul Natonabah)

WINSLOW, Ariz.

About this time two years ago, Clayton Bryant was pretty raw when it came down to wrestling.

But after he experienced his first match, he found a new passion.

Since then he has spent a lot of his time in the gym honing his skills. As a result, he has erupted into the scene as one of Monument Valley’s topflight wrestler.

“He started wrestling his sophomore year and last year he did okay but this year he’s turned it on,” Monument Valley coach Clyde McBride said of Bryant, who wrestles at 152 pounds. “He’s having an extremely good year.”

At the start of the season he placed second at the always-tough Pat Kennedy Invitational in Holbrook and in mid-December he won his school’s home tournament during the Peabody Classic.

Bryant credited his coaches for his progression in the sport and because of his persistence on the mat he’s turning a few heads.
“I’m still learning but I’m using a lot my endurance to get the upper hand,” he said.

With a 29-5 record, he entered last weekend’s 51st annual Doc Wright Invitational as the No. 4 seed in one of the most compelling wrestling tournament of the season.

Bryant pinned his first two opponents and made it to the quarterfinals of his bracket before he lost a 13-7 decision to Hosman Careveo of Piedra Vista.

Needless to say, he was eliminated from the tournament when he was pinned in the next round by St. Johns wrestler TJ Heap.

“I made some mistakes and that was how I lost,” said Bryant, who was two matches shy of making the podium. “I was trying to run something new and I got myself into trouble.”