Twenty teams from the tri-state area will compete in the annual Pat Vance Invitational today and Saturday at Nitro High.
Twenty teams from the tri-state area will compete in the annual Pat Vance Invitational today and Saturday at Nitro High.
Top teams include West Virginia Wrestling Coaches Association Class AAA No. 7-ranked North Marion, No. 9 George Washington, Class AA No. 3 Calhoun County and No. 10 Shady Spring, as well as highly regarded Sheldon Clark (Ky.), which had a strong showing earlier this season at the St. Albans Duals.
George Washington has one of its strongest teams in years. The Patriots won a team title at the Charter Communications Indian Classic in Tennessee, where it beat out 26 other teams representing seven states.
"I worked for the last four years to get this program where it's at," said GW coach Richard Harper. "I predict at least 12 [GW wrestlers] can make it to the state tournament and five or six will place without a doubt."
Ryan Shank, whose 105th career victory recently surpassed 1994 High School All-American and former state champion Mark Samples for the most at GW, and Dakota VanBibber lead the Patriots. Both enter the weekend with a flawless record and each is ranked in the top five individually by the coaches association.
After an early season of dual matchups and meets designed to get as much mat time as possible for each individual, this will be one of the first meets in which individual wrestlers will be seeded according to record, head-to-head results and winning percentage.
Many ranked individuals will compete in the double-elimination event. Here are some of the top competitors and key matchups by weight class.
103 pounds: VanBibber (13-0, AAA No. 2) is the favorite but the sophomore will have to put a blemish on another unbeaten wrestler in Tom Dodd (5-0) of Liberty Harrison.
112: Matt Dunbar (20-0) of Nitro is the only undefeated entry and is ranked No. 2 in AAA. Filling out this competitive field are GW's Jeremy Westfall (12-2, No. 5), Riverside's Paul Bryant (18-4), Trent Fancher (8-3, No. 8) of North Marion and Nick Stevens (11-4, AA No. 4) of Calhoun County.
119: Lennie Wheatley (13-0) of Lewis County brings an undefeated record into the event and will probably get the top seed, but No.4 Ian Webster (23-4) of St. Albans by far has the most seasonal victories and will look to add to his career total of over 100 wins. No. 6 Louden Goodpaster (13-4) of Cabell Midland looks to avenge a loss he suffered to Webster earlier this season. The wild card is freshman Marvin Kirk (13-2) of GW with an impressive 86.7 win percentage and a fifth-place finish at the Indian Classic.
125: A key match on Saturday should pit GW's No. 7 Zach Walker (12-4) against undefeated Ryan Hinerman (11-0) No. 5 of North Marion.Twenty teams from the tri-state area will compete in the annual Pat Vance Invitational today and Saturday at Nitro High.
Top teams include West Virginia Wrestling Coaches Association Class AAA No. 7-ranked North Marion, No. 9 George Washington, Class AA No. 3 Calhoun County and No. 10 Shady Spring, as well as highly regarded Sheldon Clark (Ky.), which had a strong showing earlier this season at the St. Albans Duals.
George Washington has one of its strongest teams in years. The Patriots won a team title at the Charter Communications Indian Classic in Tennessee, where it beat out 26 other teams representing seven states.
"I worked for the last four years to get this program where it's at," said GW coach Richard Harper. "I predict at least 12 [GW wrestlers] can make it to the state tournament and five or six will place without a doubt."
Ryan Shank, whose 105th career victory recently surpassed 1994 High School All-American and former state champion Mark Samples for the most at GW, and Dakota VanBibber lead the Patriots. Both enter the weekend with a flawless record and each is ranked in the top five individually by the coaches association.
After an early season of dual matchups and meets designed to get as much mat time as possible for each individual, this will be one of the first meets in which individual wrestlers will be seeded according to record, head-to-head results and winning percentage.
Many ranked individuals will compete in the double-elimination event. Here are some of the top competitors and key matchups by weight class.
103 pounds: VanBibber (13-0, AAA No. 2) is the favorite but the sophomore will have to put a blemish on another unbeaten wrestler in Tom Dodd (5-0) of Liberty Harrison.
112: Matt Dunbar (20-0) of Nitro is the only undefeated entry and is ranked No. 2 in AAA. Filling out this competitive field are GW's Jeremy Westfall (12-2, No. 5), Riverside's Paul Bryant (18-4), Trent Fancher (8-3, No. 8) of North Marion and Nick Stevens (11-4, AA No. 4) of Calhoun County.
119: Lennie Wheatley (13-0) of Lewis County brings an undefeated record into the event and will probably get the top seed, but No.4 Ian Webster (23-4) of St. Albans by far has the most seasonal victories and will look to add to his career total of over 100 wins. No. 6 Louden Goodpaster (13-4) of Cabell Midland looks to avenge a loss he suffered to Webster earlier this season. The wild card is freshman Marvin Kirk (13-2) of GW with an impressive 86.7 win percentage and a fifth-place finish at the Indian Classic.
125: A key match on Saturday should pit GW's No. 7 Zach Walker (12-4) against undefeated Ryan Hinerman (11-0) No. 5 of North Marion.
130: No. 3 Sam Dunbar (19-2) Nitro has plenty of quality competition to overcome to win his home tournament. There are four other top-10 opponents in No. 5 Tyler Tennant (7-4) of North Marion, Class AA No. 8 Walter Patton (18-4) of Shady Spring and Justin McCarty (19-2) of Riverside, No. 8 at 135 pounds, but has dropped to 130. Class AA No. 2 Cody Clark (13-3) of Calhoun will be a favorite, but the top seed might go to Zach Salyer (14-1) of Johnson Central (Ky.), who has lost just once this season.
135: All eyes Saturday should be on this weight class. Whoever wins this 32-man bracket will be a strong contender for Most Outstanding Wrestler. Last year's state runner-up, Riverside's Alex Buckley (21-3) No. 3 at 140 pounds has dropped to 135 and so have two other top contenders. Matt Slone (16-1) of Sheldon Clark is the No. 3 140-pounder in Kentucky. The junior captured the Most Outstanding Wrestler Award at the St. Albans Duals largely due to his convincing win over Buckley. The two could meet again, but there are plenty of wrestlers who could derail the rematch. Elijah Hull (14-0) of Lewis County is one of three undefeated athletes in this class. Shady's Sonny Harrah (3-0), Class AA No. 2 at 140, has dropped down and looks to build on his fifth-place finish at last year's state meet. Others include No. 5 Chad Efaw (9-2) of North Marion and Sean Gungle (8-3) Class AA No. 6 of Calhoun.
140: Spring Valley's Dane Niday (14-2, No. 6) left the stacked 135 class and bumped up to 140, where his toughest competition should be Chris Setliff (18-4) No. 7 of Shady Spring and two freshmen, No. 6 Harley Hamrick (10-4) of Calhoun and Alex Levitan (13-2) of GW.
145: If all goes according to plan, top-ranked Class AA Ben Laughlin (11-0) of Calhoun will meet last year's state runner-up No. 2 Matt Tennant (10-1) of North Marion in the Pat Vance finals. The spoiler could be No. 6 Charlie Scott (18-1) of Capital.
152: Johnson Central's Jordan Freeman (13-1) is the No. 2 145-pounder in Kentucky, but will wrestle up a class, where he will meet the No. 3 152-pounder in Ky. in teammate J.J. Jude (14-1). West Virginia contenders are undefeated No. 2 Evan Thompson (19-0) of Cabell Midland, No. 6 Storm Barker (10-1) of North Marion and No. 5 Jeremy Conley (11-2) of Calhoun.
160: The story here is whether anyone will knock off GW's No. 3 Ryan Shank (14-0). The most likely troublemakers are AA No. 1 Larry Dean (12-1) of Oak Hill, who has dropped down from 171, No. 6 Aaron Yoak (12-3) of Calhoun and Austin Stepp (15-4) of Sheldon Clark (No. 7 in Kentucky).
171: Jerrith Witt (12-3) of GW doesn't have the highest winning percentage in the group, but does have the highest ranking at No. 6. A strong match would place him toe-to-toe with No. 5 Caden Arnold (11-4) of Calhoun. Peter VanMaasdam (10-1) of Cabell Midland may have been overlooked in the rankings, but has a solid record.
189: There are three wrestlers with just one loss in this division - Matt Lockard (16-1) of Wellston (Ohio), J.R. Cochran (12-1) of Winfield and No. 8 Hampton Cokely (9-1) of GW. Other contenders include No. 4 Tyler Long (22-2) of Riverside, Kentucky No. 4 Bradley Stafford (16-3) of Sheldon Clark and AA No. 4 Tim Sutro (11-4) of Calhoun.
215: One of the must-see matches of the tournament could be top-ranked Josh Kay (19-0) of Capital toeing the line against Kentucky's top-ranked Ryan Kelly (17-0) of Sheldon Clark in a border battle of the best.
285: Senior Jesse Sigman (20-0) of Winfield sports a perfect record, but he'll have best a field of accomplished wrestlers to keep his record intact - No. 2 Chaz Robinson (15-2) of Riverside and No. 4 Gabe Hardiman (18-1) of Midland are major obstacles.
Reach Nicholas Haynes at OntheRoad1...@yahoo.com.
Post a comment