PHOTO BY BRIAN HOFFMAN
The Big Orange wrestlers had five boys finish in the top four as the team took fifth place in the Titan Toughman Tournament at Hidden Valley last Friday. Patrick Henry won the team title and Staunton River was runnerup.
The tournament was scheduled for two days, but with snow in the forecast it was decided to cut short the “wrestle-backs,” and finish the tournament on Friday, using all four mats for the semifinals and finals. That proved to be a wise decision with Saturday’s snowstorm, but it might have hurt teams like Byrd who have most of the spots filled.
“I think we would have done well in wrestle-backs, but overall I was pretty happy with our performance,” said Byrd coach Thomas Kessler. “We have a lot of young wrestlers and they did pretty well.”
Jerze Webb, a freshman, had Byrd’s best finish with a runnerup at 145. Webb won by pin, a major decision, and a 41 second pin over Corey Bryant of PH in the semifinal round to make the championship bout. He then lost to Hunter Sell of Lord Botetourt, whose father Randall wrestled for the Terriers in high school. It was Webb’s first loss of the season and he now stands at 8-1.
Two Terriers took thirds. Clay Pilgreen made it to the semifinal before he was beaten by Hayden Lawrence of Parry McCluer, but Clay bounced back to win the third place match, pinning Chris Hunt of Northside in 4:53. Pilgreen is also 8-1.
PHOTO BY BRIAN HOFFMAN
At 220 Zach Figart had a good day. He had pins of 21 seconds and 5:38 to make the semis, where he lost to Josh Taylor of PH, 8-2. Zach then took third place when Raven Wolk of LCA forfeited, giving Zach a 7-2 record thus far.
Derek Burton and Trinity Otey both took fourth. Burton is now 5-3 at 106 and Otey is 6-3 at 138. Zach Barnett lost in overtime in his quarterfinal at 182 and didn’t get a chance to wrestle back. He’s also 5-3.
The Orangemen also hosted a tri-match last week with Salem and Northside. Byrd beat Salem, 40-36, but lost to the Vikings, 40-38, in a match that went down to the last bout.
The Terriers will be back in action this weekend at the Knights of the Round Table tournament at Cave Spring. It’s scheduled to start Friday at 5 pm and continue through Saturday.