Busy as Bees, the entire Brecksville-Broadview Heights High School complex was buzzing all day Wednesday.

Wrestling fans crowded through the doors during the 10-hour first session of the 50^th Brecksville Invitational Holiday Tournament.

For awhile, the home fans enjoyed a first-place standing by coach Todd Haverdill's team.

Brecksville led after the first half of the day's action in the 45-team event that features 439 wrestlers. At the end of the night, the Bees were in third place with 94 points.

Wadsworth, seeking a third tournament title, stormed into the lead with 113 points, followed by Bedford Chanel with 95 points. A year ago, Chanel placed second to Wadsworth, while the Bees ended up fourth.

Brecksville head coach Todd Haverdill is not upset his team did not continue its early pace. He's proud that they are in contention.

"This is a tough week for all of us, just putting the tournament together," Haverdill said, adding that it is natural for a young wrestler or two to lose a bit of focus with all that is going on around him.

"This idea is to showcase Ohio's best and put on an exciting tournament," Haverdill said. "Let's pack the gym. Let's have fun with this. We did that today.

"As a team, we've opened the season at three of the top tournaments in the country. That's a grueling schedule. But it will pay off."

The Bees have two wrestlers remaining in the championship round and eight in the consolations. Wadsworth has five apiece and Chanel has five in the title bracket and four in the consolations.

The Bees' Marshal Willet was hoping to advance to the title bracket. He came in seeded eighth at 171 pounds with a 21-11 record in 2010. Willet won his first two matches easily, by scores of 17-6 and 17-8. Then he went up against No. 1 seed Chris Phillips of Monroeville and lost 11-4.

"Marshall got beat and that stinks," Haverdill said. "You want to win every match you enter. But he lost to the best kid in the country in his weight class.

"So what you do is learn from that, move on and try to improve.

"At the end of the day, what we're looking to is the end of the year. We're building now for the rest of our season and on to the state tournament."

Dylan Good still has title aspirations at 135 pounds after winning all three of his matches. So does senior Kyle Roddy at 160 pounds. He won twice on pins around a 10-2 decision.

Senior Anthony D'Amico won twice by pins at 125. He beat Aurora's D.J. Lieberth in 1:04. He needed more time against fifth-seeded Austin Williams of Sonoraville, a school that is considered a powerhouse in Georgia's 3-A Division. D'Amico gradually wore down his opponent and registered a pin at 4:19.

D'Amico then lost to Twinsburg's Mike Labry, pinned in 5:39 in an exciting match.

Junior Tommy Pruchinski got off to a fast start with a quick pin at 1:46, then lost his second match to Mayfield senior Brandon Birr, 5-0 at 119 pounds.

Mitch Baran won twice at 130, then lost 8-4 to top-seed Johnny Matacic of Jackson-Milton.