Salem, Glenvar are in “Big Orange” this weekend
The Salem and Glenvar wrestlers will be competing on the same mats for the second week in a row when William Byrd hosts the annual Big Orange Classic tournament in Vinton this weekend. The tournament will be held Friday and Saturday and include most of the teams in the Roanoke Valley and beyond.
Last weekend Salem and Glenvar competed in the 28 team Takedown the New Year tournament at Heritage High School in Lynchburg. Salem took first place as a team and Glenvar was fourth in the annual event.
“We wrestled very well and beat a very deep Turner Ashby team to win the title,” said Salem coach Lawrence Van Liew.
Derek Bush was named the outstanding wrestler of the tournament voted on by the coaches, taking first place at 120 pounds. Salem’s Jack James won the 285 pound class and Glenvar also had a champion as Jack Yetzer won the 106 pound title.
Five other Salem or Glenvar wrestlers made the final and took seconds. For Salem Sayge Herndon lost to Yetzer in the 106 pound championship and finished second, Anthony Baudanza was second at 132 and Tolin Saul was runnerup at 165. For Glenvar, Levi Wright was second at 144 and Haden Henderson took second at 150.
Other Salemites who finished in the top five included Jay Preston with a third at 215, Robert Herndon with a third at 285, fourth places by Kolynn Eastman at 126 and Giuseppe Baudanza at 138 and fifths by Patrick Patterson at 113 and Keegan Price at 190.
For Glenvar, four wrestlers took fourth place including Nick Yetzer at 113, Jacob Long at 120, Jack Osburn at 157 and John Vishneski at 165. The Highlanders are very thin in the heavier classes and had just 10 wrestlers entered but still finished fourth as a team.
Both Salem and Glenvar hosted matches on Wednesday but results were too late for publication. Hidden Valley and Cave Spring were at Salem and Floyd and James River wrestled at Glenvar.
This weekend’s Big Orange Classic lineup of high school teams will include Bassett, Blacksburg, Brookville, Charlottesville, Christiansburg, Floyd County, Franklin County, Giles, Lord Botetourt, Heritage, Hidden Valley, Liberty, LCA, Martinsville, Northside, Parry McCluer, Riverheads, Roanoke Catholic, Rustburg, Western Albemarle, William Fleming, host Byrd and both Salem and Glenvar.
