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by Lloyd Combs
Sports Reporter
There’s
just something special about wrestling on a
Saturday night
at a major tournament.
Grundy
was still in action Saturday night and had its
best finish at
the Virginia Duals in six years,
claiming
fourth-place in the American High School
Division at
Hampton Coliseum.
There
were consolation finals and championship finals
Saturday
evening in each high school and college
division at
the Duals, one of the most prestigious
wrestling
tournaments in the country.
The
Golden Wave advanced to the championship
quarterfinals
with a 43-19 thumping of First Colonial
in opening
round action Friday night. Forced to take
the mats right
after the win, Grundy fell to Kellam,
50-20, in
Friday's second dual.
Grundy,
which last wrestled in the finals when it won
the National
High School Division in 2001, notched
three dual
meet victories Saturday to move into the
consolation
finals. The Golden Wave dropped a 41-26
decision to
Kempsville Saturday evening in the
third-fourth
place meet.
“We
made a lot of mistakes, but, honestly, I was
pleased with
how we finished,” Grundy coach Travis
Fiser said.
“We were wrestling on Saturday night and
we haven’t
done that since 2001.”
Josh
Lee (189 pounds) was the only Grundy wrestler to
go through the
tournament unscathed, winning all six
of his
matches.
Teammates
Josh Ratliff (215), Josh McCowan (152),
Jarrett
Landis, Ethan Owens (119) and Jon Dotson (125)
each lost just
once.
“All
those guys wrestled pretty good,” Fiser said.
“Josh
Lee had a great tournament. I don’t know how
good some of
the competition was, but, overall, the
competition at
the Duals is usually pretty tough.”
“We
wrestled tough as a team. We had a lot more upside
as a team. As
individuals, some of us were
inconsistent.
We’d look good one match and so-so the
next.”
For more of the story, see the print
edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.
For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer,
call 276-935-2123 today.
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Panthers
Explode on 18-3 Run to Stop Honaker in BDD |
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by
Lloyd Combs
Sports Reporter
What would Rick do?
Twin
Valley coach Brian Moore heeded some prior advice
from Rick
Goodman and it helped Twin Valley pull away
from Honaker,
52-37, in Black Diamond District play
Friday night
at A.P. Baldwin Gymnasium.
Hunter
Simpson’s stick-back with 6:40 remaining broke
a 34-34 tie
and started a game-ending 18-3 run for
Twin Valley
(10-3, 2-0).
The
Panthers blew first half leads of seven and eight
points, and a
10-point, 29-19 second-half advantage.
Logan
Ball and Bret Carter led a 15-5 second-half run
to get the
Tigers even at 34-34 after a driving lay-in
by Ball with
7:15 remaining.
Twin
Valley struggled again after regaining the lead
in the fourth
quarter, until Simpson’s three-pointer
with 3:50
remaining doubled the Panthers lead to 42-36
and changed
the complexion of the game.
“We
got tentative, then, during a timeout, the first
thing that
came to my mind was, ‘what would Rick do’,”
said Moore,
referring to the former state coach of the
year who was
an assistant on Moore’s staff last year.
“And
Rick (once) told me he’d go for the jugular.
“Hunter
passed up a wide open three before that, so I
told him,
‘if you get it again you better shoot it,’
and he was
able to knock it down. That was a big shot.
We’d been
struggling, but we finally found a little
bit of a
rhythm and (Honaker) went a little cold."
Garrett
Horne scored 16 points, Simpson finished with
12 and Matthew
Baldwin scored 10 points for the
Panthers, who
forced five Honaker turnovers down the
stretch to
protect their late lead.
“Our
shots weren’t falling, so we had to step it up on
defense,"
Simpson said. "We just tried to play hard
and hit the
boards."
For more of the story, see the print
edition of the Mountaineer, on sale at newsstands now.
For more information on how to subscribe to the Mountaineer,
call 276-935-2123 today.
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