The William Byrd Big Orange wrestlers finished third and had two
champions in the Big Red wrestling tournament last Saturday. The Big Red was
hosted by Riverheads High School in Staunton.
The host Gladiators edged Lord Botetourt to win the tournament.
Riverheads had 204.5 points and LB was just a point and a half behind at 203.
Byrd was third with 190.5 and Abingdon was well behind in fourth with 128.
Big Orange wrestlers who won championships were Darin Witcher at 106
and Gage Cockran at 138. Witcher defeated James River’s Xaiden Wynn in the
final in what has been a running battle between the two all season. Darin pinned
his way into the final and took a 4-0 decision over Wynn for the championship.
Witcher is now 23-2 and Wynn is 21-2 with both losing coming at the hands of
Witcher.
At 138 Cockran ran into another James River foe as he battled Nate
Stewart in the final. Gage won in “sudden victory” by an 8-6 score as Stewart lost
for just the third time this season. Cockran is 28-6.
Byrd had three other wrestlers make the final and take seconds. At 126
Zane Taylor took second and he’s now 22-8. Stephen Underwood is 26-7 after
dropping his final to unbeaten TJ Piluso of Lord Botetourt at 165 and, at 190,
Aidan Lucas dropped a 10-6 decision to Dawson Martin of Radford in the final.
Aidan is 24-11.
Byrd’s Bricen Lancaster battled back through the consolation bracket to
take third, winning his consolation final by major decision over Noah Ross of
Riverheads. Bricen is 23-6 on the season.
The Orangemen piled up some points in the consolation bracket. Curtis
Dillon placed fourth at 144, Grayson Castleberry and Jackson McCoy took fifth at
175 and 215, and three Terriers took sixth, Lane Brunk at 106, Kyle Kalinke at
113 and Sawyer Bolen at 150.
“A lot of our guys are peaking at the right time of the year,” said coach
Thomas Kessler.
The Blue Ridge District tournament was scheduled for Wednesday at
Northside but results were too late for publication. The Region 3C tournament is
scheduled for February 10 at Abingdon and the top four in the region advance to
the state at the Salem Civic Center on February 16 & 17.
“A lot of our guys have that top four finish in their minds,” said Kessler.
