Saturday, February 21, 2009
Region C earns an 'A' on Day 1
Glenvar, Rural Retreat and Radford are just some of the area schools to get off to a strong start at the state meet.
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Floyd County freshman Jesse Redford was just happy to be participating in the in the VHSL Group A wrestling tournament at Salem Civic Center on Friday.
The 125-pound freshman was Region C's No. 4-seed coming in, but he sure didn't look like it after the first day of competition.
Redford upset Jean-Carlos Taveras of Manassas Park 8-2 in the first round and followed that up with another stunner, this time an 8-4 decision over Arcadia's Keith Whatley.
Taveras was Region B's top seed and Whatley was No. 2 from Region A.
Now Redford, who was just happy with being in the tournament, is guaranteed to at least finish sixth.
"I'd be happy with that," he said. "That exceeded my expectations, but I'm gonna stick it out this next round with [Grayson County's Cody McGuire].
"If I make it to the finals, that'll be big."
He's one win away from accomplishing that feat and if Redford maintains the same frame of mind he's had since the tournament began, he should be in good shape.
"I made it here and then, I don't know, I didn't want to stop here, I wanted to keep going," he said.
Attitude helps, but so does the type of competition he has faced in Region C.
Need some evidence?
Of 56 Region C wrestlers that made it to the state tournament, 38 won their first-round match.
Twenty-eight of those wrestlers won again in the quarterfinals and will compete in today's semifinals.
In other words, half of the semifinal participants will be from the same region.
"Oh, our region's stacked," George Wythe wrestler Levi Lanter said after pinning Derron Fitch of Randolph-Henry in 2 minutes, 49 seconds in the 160 quarterfinals.
Covington coach Ray Sullis agreed, citing that these competitors are less intimidated because they've seen this quality of wrestling before stepping on the mat with a state title on the line.
"In wrestling, a lot of success comes from the people who [face] competition early in the season," Sullis said. "A lot of kids get out there, and this is the best kid they've faced all season and those kids aren't the ones who usually do the best.
"I didn't know how good Region C would be, but so far we've been really competitive here."
Glenvar leads the way for the region with five wrestlers in the semifinals.
Radford and Rural Retreat each have three, while seven other Timesland teams have one or two wrestlers still going in the semifinals.
Today, plenty of wrestlers will be shaking hands with familiar foes prior to the start of their semifinal bouts.
Region C placed four wrestlers in the 135- and 215-pound divisions, three wrestlers at 119, 125 and 130 and two in 140, 152, 160 and 171.
The difference is that this go-round, it isn't for the region. This is for the state title and anything can happen.
As far as Floyd County coach Mike Murphy is concerned, that's the way it should be, and he points to Redford as evidence.
"You know, not seeing the other regions, I can't speak [to] how tough the other ones are," he said.
"I mean, this is really where you come to see it ... right here's where it happens.
"Anything can happen here. That's why we wrestle the matches and not just fill out the brackets of who should win."
His 125-pounder is proof of that.
Heck, Redford was just happy to be here.
