After honoring its three seniors, the Rockbridge County High School wrestling team defeated Shenandoah District rivals Buffalo Gap and Staunton in its only home meet of the season last Wednesday night in Lexington.
The night started with a dual between Staunton and Buffalo Gap, with Staunton winning 69-12.
The Wildcats then honored seniors Markus Nelson, Graham Niebur and Carlos Reynolds. “The seniors have done a great job this year,” said RC head coach Mike Wood, who became the Wildcats’ head coach in the 202223 season, when the current seniors were freshmen. “It’s a very small senior class. We’ve usually got a few more than that, but they’re good leaders.”
After the Senior Night festivities, RC cruised to a 72-12 victory over shorthanded Buffalo Gap before overcoming Fort Defiance 42-37. With the victories, the Wildcats improved to 8-6 in duals.
The Wildcats were wrestling without Niebur, who was out sick, so freshman Emmett Forman stepped up for him at 138-pounds. Forman won by forfeit over Gap before he was pinned by Staunton’s Hudson Powell in 3:13.
“Emmett did a good job out there battling, but Graham’s a starter,” said Wood. “I wish we could’ve had Graham in the lineup tonight, because definitely right there [against Staunton] he gets us a pin. He’s good. That’s a 12-point swing [for the team].”
Due to Niebur’s absence, four Wildcats moved up a weight class. Wood said bumping the younger wrestlers up a weight class gave them a good challenge early in their careers.
The only senior to move up a weight class was Nelson, who pinned Gap’s Jude Louk in 3:34 at 157-pounds before pinning Staunton’s Riley Cook in 3:09 at 165. Nelson, a state qualifier at 150 last year, said the performance by his team was “just very electric. We were on top of it. … We kept after it every single match, and that was really awesome to see, considering how young the team is, just going after it as hard as we can.”
The three RC seniors join just two juniors, 10 sophomores and seven freshmen.
At 113, Reynolds won by forfeit over Gap before he dropped a 9-7 decision to Staunton’s Alex Ruiz Moreno.
RC junior Finn Miller went 2-0 at 132. He pinned Gap’s Carter Bowman in 1:11 and then struggled with a knee injury against Staunton’s Omni Slagle, with the match stopping several times for injury timeouts before Miller pulled through by pinning Slagle in 5:06.
At 126, RC sophomore Davis Welsh went 2-0, winning by forfeit over Gap before pinning Staunton’s Malachi Bennett in 3:28.
Also going 2-0 for the Wildcats was freshman Taylan Tyree, pinning Gap’s Paul Yoder in 1:40 at 144 before pinning Staunton’s Henry Todd in 1:59.
Stepping up in the dual against Staunton for RC were a pair of sophomores: Harvey Presnell, pinning Niall Hurt in 1:38 at 175, and Shayde Tomlin, pinning Elijah Fimple in 1:07 at 190.
Following the varsity duals, there were several exhibition matches. The last one was between RC’s only female wrestler, sophomore Tasha Shorter, and Staunton female wrestler Caylaih Chandler, a junior. Shorter took an early 3-0 lead before pinning Chandler in 3:52.
After the Wildcats celebrated their wins, Reynolds commented on how his team came together, especially the younger wrestlers, and battled to get the victories in front of their home crowd. “These kids aren’t getting so much experience, but they’re still going out there,” said Reynolds. “They’re doing their job, they’re working hard on the mat and in practice, and they’re always working. That’s something you love to see, especially leaving, knowing you have a solid team coming up.”
The Wildcats were scheduled to wrestle at Strasburg on Saturday, but those duals were canceled due to snow.
Today, Wednesday, the Wildcats will travel for a Shenandoah District tri-meet at Riverheads, with Fort Defiance also competing, at 6 p.m.
Shorter Fourth In Orange In the Orange County Girls Open, the biggest girls wrestling tournament in Virginia, Shorter placed fourth of 24 grapplers at 152-pounds on Saturday.
Shorter, whose record this season is 13-2 after winning her first three tournaments, went 3-2 on Saturday, pinning her first three opponents. She quickly pinned Amherst County’s Katy Meji Martzl in 34 seconds before taking the same amount of time to pin Bayside’s Paeyton Galloway. Shorter then took down Amherst County’s Abigail Eggleston in 1:33.
In the semifinals, Shorter was pinned by Orange County’s Kelynn Dunn in 1:36. Dunn would go on to win the tournament, pinning all of her opponents. In the third-place bout, Shorter was pinned by Goochland’s Ella Adamson in 4:23.
Reviewing Shorter’s performance, RC assistant coach Kage Tomlin said, “We had high hopes going into Orange County, and we think she performed very well.”
Tomlin, who said the tournament was a great preview for the girls’ state tournament, added, “Compared to where she was last year to this year, I think Tasha has grown exponentially.”
