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Region wrestling roundup: Monroe, Western, Louisa and Madison wrestlers win region titles

Wrestling’s region tournament Saturday makes or breaks seasons. It’s a fickle weekend that determines who make the trip Salem for the Group 4A through 1A schools or Chesapeake for the 5A and 6A programs.

 

Central Virginia wrestlers had a pretty good Saturday, with five region champions and 30 wrestlers qualifying for next week’s state championships. Among that group was Goochland’s first state qualifier in the short, two-year history of the Bulldogs’ wrestling program. Brian Herrera earn a spot in Salem by taking second at 182 pounds in the Region 2A East tournament.

 

Here’s a rundown of who’s heading to Salem and Chesapeake after a busy weekend of wrestling.

 

Region 5A North

Albemarle and Orange County put together a strong performance at Orange Saturday, with the Hornets pushing six wrestlers forward to the state tournament while the Patriots got two wrestlers out of a challenging Region 5A North.

Orange’s performance was enough to put the Hornets in sixth place in the region as a team.

Chance Bowers and Kaleb Marshall led the way for the Hornets as both grabbed runner-up slots, with Bowers taking second at 132 while Marshall finished second at 182.

Dustin Shifflett finished third at 195 while Ryan Smith checked in at fourth in 106. Trent Carr (120) and Nicholas Benner (126) each took sixth place to round out the Hornets’ state qualifiers.

Brock Shorten and Jamonte Howze each qualified for states for Albemarle, with Shorten wrestling back from a semifinal loss to take third while Howze took fourth at 285.

 

Region 4A East

Louisa County’s contingent at the Region 4A East Tournament made its presence felt Saturday, taking fifth as a team with 131 points at Churchland High School.

Two big factors in that team performance was region title runs by Austin Mills at 120 pounds and Tony Thurston at 285 pounds. Thurston pinned his way into the final before beating Arthur Stevens of Caroline 5-0 in the title bout. Mills put together a similar run with pins in the first round and semifinals with a 6-0 win in the quarterfinals squeezed in. In the final he won 5-0 over Andrew Nazarro of Eastern View.

Jaret Grimsley checked in in fifth place at 132 for the Lions too while Mason Morris and Noah Buddendeck qualified with fifth place finishes at 120 and 145 pounds respectively. Zion Villines and Jeremiah Grimsley rounded out Louisa’s qualifiers with sixth place finishes at 106 for Villines and 152 for Grimsley.

 

Region 3A West

Nate Riley had to fight for it at the end, but after three straight first quarter pins that wasn’t a problem as Riley knocked off Erik Eva of Christiansburg to win the Region 3A West title at 182 pounds and stay unbeaten on the season.

Riley’s run sparked Western to a third place team finish behind champion and host Christiansburg and Cave Spring. Western edged out Lord Botetourt for third by just 2.5 points.

Beyond Riley’s title, Western had a pair of third place finishes as Will Davis took third at 145 and Jacob Jackson grabbed third at 285. Jabari Gomez took fourth from the 195 slot and then three fifth place finishes from Anthony Ramazni at 138, Beighley Austin at 106 and Jack Overstreet at 113 gave the Warriors a lift. Andreas McCullough wrapped up Western’s state qualifiers with a sixth place at 132.

Also qualifying from Central Virginia was Fluvanna County’s 160-pound wrestler, Ian Dillon, punching his ticket to Salem with a fourth place finish.

 

Region 3A East

William Monroe wrestlers have become a fixture in Salem the last few years and this season, a region champion will carry the torch.

Austin Rath won the Region 3A East by pinning his way into the final (with all three pins coming in the second period of those three matches) before posting a major decision over previously unbeaten Tyree Sutton of Booker T. Washington to win 10-2.

Rath heads to Salem next week.

 

Region 2A East

Madison County always has some wrestlers in the mix at the state championships in Salem and coach Mike Sacra, who passed the 400 career win mark earlier this season will guide a trio of wrestlers to the state championships.

That group is led by Region 2A East champion Zach Gibson, who took fourth in the state last year. In the regional, Gibson pinned his way into the semifinals, won a 5-3 decisions in the semifinals and won 20-5 in the final over Brandon Long of Stuarts Draft to earn a tech fall.

Meanwhile teammates Dalton Dudley and Eric Cashman earned spots in Salem with a third place finish at 160 by Dudley and a runner-up finish by Cashman at 220 pounds.

Chase Berry took fifth at 195 pounds.

Also earning a spot at the state tournament was Goochland’s Brian Herrera, who took second place at 182 pounds and became the first state qualifier in school history.

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