Three Rappahannock wrestlers advance to state tournament
Three Rappahannock wrestlers will advance to the State Tournament in Salem March 3. Conner Miller won the Region B Championship at 103 pounds in Strasburg Saturday, February 24. Also advancing were Arne Utne in second place at 189 pounds and Davey Torrance in third place at 112 pounds. Jeremy Diley also placed sixth, but only the top four advance. In Salem they will be up against the top four wrestlers in their weight classes from each of the other three regions in the state.
Conner came into the Region B Tournament ranked top in the Bull Run District. He should have been paired with the #4 wrestler from the Southern Section (which combined teams from two districts, since several of the schools in those districts don’t field wrestling teams). However that section only had three wrestlers in the lightest weight. So Conner had a bye in the first round. In the semi finals he pinned Justin Searce from Chatham, and in the championship round he was once again matched with Maximo Gonzalez from Monassas Park, and again came away with a win on points 7-3.
“I’m looking forward to states,” he said. Of Gonzales he added, “We’ve wrestled three times, and I’ve won all three, but it just depends on how well I wrestle and how he wrestles.”
Arne Utne won his first two matches by pins, defeating Colton Swinson of Riverheads in the first round and Alex Tragult of Wilson Memorial in the semi final before losing to Nick Keel of Chatham in the championship by a pin. It was a long wait before his final match and he paced as he watched the other matches. Arne has had a busy year as an exchange student, and last week was unusually busy as he continued wrestling practices while trying out for the soccer team.
For Davey Torrance the route to states was more complicated. He defeated Phillip Congleton of Wilson Memorial 12-1 in the first round, but in the second round he lost 3-0 to Strasburg’s Jonathan Brill (the Egion B champion at the weight). That dropped him into the loser’s bracket where he pinned Thien Tran from Manassas Park to qualify for the consolation match for third and fourth places. In that match he defeated Tristan Rion of Buffalo Gap 4-3.
“I’m hoping to do better at states,” he said.
Tyler Armor at 119 pounds, John Mello at 160 pounds and Aidan Demoli at 215 pounds each lost their first two matches and were eliminated. Jeremy Diley lost his first match to Travis Boyd of Randolph Henry (the eventual Region B Champion) but then defeated Jesse Banks of Buffalo Gap by a pin. He then lost to Jonathan Wilson of Strasburg in he consolation semi-finals, and that put him into a bracket to wrestle for fifth and sixth. There he lost to Dustin Coffey of Wilson Memorial to place sixth.
“I was extremely proud of all our wrestlers; they represented Rappahannock well. We had great support from wrestlers that didn’t qualify, their parents, friends, teachers and RappVoice. They appreciated the support, and I think it helped their performance. Our boys were well received by the pro-Bull Run District fans, and I was happy with their performance. All our wrestlers showed great improvement as our season progressed. Next year should be exciiting with our young team,” Assistant Coach Hodge Miller said.
-- Sharon Kilpatrick
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