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Randolph-Henry Wrestling Competes in the 2A-West Regional Tournament

   Written by on February 25, 2016 at 2:38 pm

Last Friday the Randolph-Henry Wrestling team traveled to James River High School in Buchanan, VA to compete for the chance to qualify for the 2A State Wrestling Tournament.  With recent injuries and illnesses, the wrestling team was down to 7 wrestlers competing out of the 14 possible weight classes.

P--RH Wrestling RH WrestlingWith small numbers and new wrestlers, the Statesmen still competed with some of the best teams and wrestlers in the state.

At 126 lbs, first year wrestler Richard Pleasant wrestled hard only to come up short to the #6 ranked wrestler in the state from Lebanon High School.

Randolph-Henry’s 132 lbs. wrestler and co-captain, Christopher Nichols won his first two matches only to face a returning state champion and #1 ranked wrestler in the state from Grundy High School.  Christopher wrestled hard the rest of the tournament and placed 3rd.  This means that Christopher will represent Randolph-Henry at the 2A State Wrestling Tournament at the Salem Civic Center on Feb. 18-19.

Michael Nichols a first year wrestler at 138 lbs. lost his first match to a wrestler from Union High School who eventually took 3rd place and will move on to the state tournament.  Michael then won his next match 20-6 over a wrestler from Central of Wise.  He lost his last match to a strong opponent from Dan River High School.

At 145 lbs., Jonathan Chester, a second year wrestler, won his first match by pin in the first period.  He then lost his next match to the eventual 5th place wrestler from Virginia High.  After losing that match Jonathan wrestled back to record 2 more wins and place 6th in the region.  With only two regions in the 2A state classification, this means that Jonathan is among the top 12 wrestlers in the 2A state classification.

Next at 152 lbs., Layton Payne, a first year wrestler, fought hard against the eventual 3rd place wrestler in the region but in the end lost the match. In a very full and strong weight class, he then wrestled a good match but lost to a good wrestler from Chatham High School. Calvin King, a second year wrestler at 160, lost his first match to the eventual regional runner-up.  Calvin then won his next match by pin over a tough opponent from Virginia High.  He lost a close 5-2 decision to the next wrestler from Tazwell High School. Randolph-Henry’s 170 lbs. wrestler and co-captain, Spencer Parrish, won his first match by pin over a tough young wrestler from Graham High School.  Then Spencer faced the eventual regional runner up from Central of Wise and lost.  He wrestled hard to win the next match over Lee County by pin in the second period.  Spencer finally lost a tough match to a very experienced senior wrestler from Chatham High School.

Even though only Christopher Nichols qualified for states, all of Randolph-Henry’s Wrestlers learned a lot, fought hard, and earned the respect of our opponents in the 2A-West Region.  As a team Randolph-Henry placed 18th out of 21 teams.  With a very young squad (with no seniors) the team plans to make much more progress towards states in the years to come.

If you would like to encourage Christopher in his quest for a state championship this weekend you can do so on the “Randolph-Henry Wrestling” Facebook Page.

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