by Lisa Hinton-Valdrighi
Lancaster High School took five wrestlers to Lafayette’s Ram Rumble in Williamsburg last weekend and three placed.
Deandre Wade (120) went 3-2 to finish fifth “and had a great first two rounds,” said LHS coach Craig Oren.
Wade was beaten by Troy Wong from Salem in the semifinals. His best match came in the battle for fifth place when he beat Joe Thompson from York, 5-4.
Will Parker (138) secured a spot in Saturday’s semifinals after a promising first round last Friday, but finished sixth after losing a 8-7 to Garrett Blatt of Smithfield.
Freshman Adam Wilmore (195) went 3-2 and beat Brandon Gonzales of George Marshall, 2-0, to place fifth.
“I really liked the maturity Adam showed in such an intimidating tournament,” said Oren. “His loss in the semifinals to the eventual champion may have been his best performance. I really liked the way he was physical and didn’t back down from his highly-experienced foe.”
Dominique Veney (132) and John Martin (145) “wrestled in tough weight classes,” said Oren. “Both were able to get a couple of wins, but unfortunately they came up one match shy of placing in the top six.”
Lancaster and Mathews were the only two Group A teams at the Ram Rumble. Salem won the meet with 295.5 points. First Colonial was second with 260 and Great Bridge, third with 176.5.
Lancaster finished tied for 16th with 58.5 points and Mathews was 21st with 43. There were 39 teams with 32-man brackets.
Lancaster went 1-1 against Mathews and Northumberland last Wednesday during the Northumberland Tri in Claraville. Martin, Wade, Wilmore and Matthew Bavuso (182) each went undefeated against the Blue Devils and Indians.
Mathews edged Lancaster, 36-33, while the Red Devils beat the Indians, 47-24.
“Northumberland and Mathews are big rivals for us and each match had a lot of extra intensity,” said Oren. “The two performances really showed we are improving and growing as a team.”
Martin avenged an early season loss to state qualifier Lazareth Tschantre from Northumberland and Tyus Clayton (152) scored nine points against Northumberland’s Caleb Davis before Davis pinned him. Davis finished fifth in the state last year.
Parker and heavyweight William Cooke both went 1-1.
Lancaster’s next match is in post season play in the Conference #43 tournament February 4 at Rappahannock County.
