The William Byrd “Big Orange” wrestling team will be competing in the “Titan Toughman” Wrestling Tournament at Hidden Valley High School this weekend. It’s hard to say how many teams will be included but the Titans sent out 92 invitations for their annual event.
The tournament is of the individual variety and begins with first round matches at 3 pm Friday. Wrestling picks back up with the semifinal round on Saturday at 10 am and the championship finals will be held Saturday evening immediately following the consolation finals. Admission is $6 Friday, $8 Saturday or $12 for a two-day pass.
The Terriers competed in the “River Rumble” at Staunton River High School last weekend and finished seventh as a team. Riverbend won the team title with host Staunton River taking runner-up honors and Christiansburg was third.
“Seventh is right about where I thought we would be going into this tournament,” said Byrd coach Thomas Kessler. “We were down a few scoring guys due to injury and not being down to the correct weights yet.”
Byrd had two second place finishes, Darin Witcher and Xavier Preston. Xavier is a returning two-time state runner-up and he lost a very close decision to Josh Kelly of Staunton River, 6-4.
Dominic Pascoe and Aidan Lucas both took thirds for the Terriers. Bricen Lancaster was fourth and the Orange had three sixth places, Gage Cockran, Stephen Underwood and Landon Barber.
“Overall as a team we wrestled better than we usually do at the beginning of the year,” said Kessler. “I was happy with a lot of our performances. Luckily for us, the season isn’t determined by the placement at the River Rumble and we will be able to keep working and getting better all season.”
