Saturday, February 20, 2010
Demons feeling the heat
Former power Grundy leads Christiansburg in Group AA.
Photos by JARED SOARES The Roanoke Times
Defending 130-pound champion Devin Carter, of Christiansburg, (top) locks up Jamestown High School's Sid Hall on the first day of competition.
Staunton River's Jeremy Tyree celebrates beating Potomac Falls' Mike Oswald in the 145-pound class.
Christiansburg's Rich Eva, the defending champion at 152-pounds, ties up Staunton River's Chris Tyree on Friday in the first day of the state tournament at the Salem Civic Center.
Hidden Valley's David Williams (160 pounds) tries to break a hold from Millbrook's John Sharpe.
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Wretched winter weather put the freeze on much of the high school wrestling season in Virginia.
Now things are heating up.
Not just outside Salem Civic Center either.
The venerable facility has been the VHSL Group AA tournament site for two decades, but eight-time defending champion Christiansburg found itself in an unfamiliar location Friday night halfway through the two-day event.
The Blue Demons are in second place, and the team in front is an old recognizable name.
Grundy, which has won 15 state team titles but none since 2001, wants its title back. The Golden Wave leads Christiansburg 75 12 - 67 12 heading into today's 9:30 a.m. semifinals.
Normally, Christiansburg could start polishing the trophy. Instead, Grundy is making Blue Demons head coach Daryl Weber sweat.
Is this more fun?
"It's more stressful," Weber said.
Grundy has seven semifinalists to Christiansburg's five. However, the Blue Demons have major strength with returning Group AA champions Devin Carter (130 pounds) and Rich Eva (152), returning runner-up Brady Epperly (140), and outstanding freshmen Joey Dance (112) and Zach Epperly (135).
Carter, a Virginia Tech signee who clicked off two quick pins, is in search of his third straight state title.
There is a high likelihood of the Blue Demons producing multiple individual champions.
"I hope so," Weber said. "We've got, I would say, more heavy favorites,"
Grundy coach Travis Fiser admitted as much.
"They've got some real horses," Fiser said.
Grundy and Christiansburg will collide in just one semifinal, at 135 where Zach Epperly has narrowly beaten Grundy's Jon Dotson twice. Grundy's other semifinalists are Sean Vandyke (112), Jeremy Hurley (119), Ethan Owens (140), Cody Rife (145), Tyler McClanahan (160) and Tanner McClanahan (171).
Amazingly, Grundy has not produced an individual state champion since 2003, a fact that sticks in Fiser's craw.
"It does," Fiser said. "We haven't had an individual winner and it starts there. Right now it's a matter of our guys trying to get to the finals and trying to be a champ. That's what our goals are this year, to get some champions."
Blacksburg's Neal Kennedy notched that distinction in 2009 when he won the title at 103. The senior moved up two classes to 119 this year, but entered the tournament with just 10 matches under his belt after suffering a broken ankle earlier this winter.
"I hurt it sometime over winter break and came back and wrestled starting with districts," Kennedy said. "I tried to come back and wrestle. We didn't find out it was broken until a couple weeks later."
Kennedy, one of three Blacksburg semifinalists along with Zach Myers (152) and James Petersen (171), said he still feels like a marked man, even if his 2009 title came at a different weight class.
"They all know I've won it," he said. "It's different [at 119], but I'm bigger too. I think I've adjusted well."
Staunton River and Cave Spring each produced two semifinalists.
Jeremy Tyree (140) and Dustin Kidd (189) advanced for Staunton River with Tyree scoring a 6-4 overtime win over Nick Oswald of Potomac Falls.
Tyree is still steamed that snow cancelled the Blue Ridge District meet, where Staunton River was poised to win a district title for the first time in 40 years.
"It hurt us a little bit in region," Tyree said. "We only took four to state this year. Last year we took seven. Having a district tournament would have helped a lot in regional seedings. Myself, I was looking for a fourth title and I didn't get a chance to get that."
Tyree has a huge task on his hands with a semifinal against Brady Epperly. whose two pins have taken all of 2 minutes, 23 seconds.
"I'll do my best, wrestle my head off," Tyree said. "This is where you put it all on the line and see who's the best of the best."
Andrew Benitez (135) and C.T. Talevi (140) advanced for Cave Spring and put a big dent in the title hopes of Fauquier, which dropped from Group AAA this season. Benitez edged Fauquier's Andrew Richards 5-3, while Talevi stopped Seth Baker, 7-4. Both Richards and Baker were Region II champions.
Fauquier is third in the team standings with 55 12 points.
Three regional champs from Timesland -- Hidden Valley's David Williams (160), Salem's Jake Semones (215) and Northside's Ryan Moran (215) -- also advanced along with Marion's Zeb Rhodes (215).
Fourteen individual champions will be crowned tonight. For a change, the engravers are holding off on the team trophy.
That could change with this morning's semifinals.
"It could, one way or the other," Weber said. "More than likely it won't be. It will probably come down to the finals. Nothing's over."
Franklin County's Hunter Adams (152) advanced to the semifinals of the Group AAA wrestling tournament at Robinson High School in Fairfax. Adams defeated Mount Vernon's Trey McCluer 16-1 in the first round and then beat Tanner Ketcherside from Kellam, 3-2, in the quarterfinals. At 160, Franklin County's James Bisnett won his first-round match over Chris Fano of Hermitage, 9-1, before falling in the quarterfinals, 9-5, to Turner Bishop of Kellam. Also for Franklin County, Andrew Turner (112) lost to Roy Renzi of Lake Braddock 10-1, David Carey (135) fell to Deep Run's Peyton Walsh 16-0, Bruce Brown (140) lost to Matt Dey of Lansdowne 10-4, Jonathan Jones (171) was defeated by Martin Seneca of Centreville 7-2, and Taylor Horner (285) was pinned at 1:22 by Mike Wyche of Oscar Smith.
-- Staff reports
