The Salem and Glenvar wrestlers participated in the Titan Toughman Tournament at Hidden Valley last week and both schools had some strong efforts.
The tournament was scheduled for Friday and Saturday, but with the forecast calling for snow the “wrestle-backs” were cancelled so the semifinals and finals could be wrestled on all four mats Friday night. That allowed the champions to be crowned without fear of a Saturday cancellation, which would have likely happened with Saturday’s snow.
Patrick Henry ended up winning the team championship with Staunton River taking second. Glenvar was 10th as a team and Salem finished 13th.
Glenvar had a champion in Maxx Philpott, who won every one of his matches by pin at 285. Maxx is now 11-0 after pinning Patrick Henry’s Omega Webb in the Titan Toughman final in 2:50. His other three pins were in 56 seconds, 32 seconds and just 14 seconds in the semifinals.
“Maxx is continuing to improve his technique and not relying on his athleticism to win matches,” said Glenvar coach Stan Malek.
Taking a second for the Highlanders was Tanner Speight at 106. After opening with two byes he won his quarterfinal match with a 31 second pin, then beat Derek Burton of William Byrd in the semifinal, 6-2. Tanner lost to Nick Young of Lord Botetourt in the 106 pound championship match, 5-4, for his first loss of the season. Speight is 7-1.
“Despite the loss, I felt Tanner had a good tournament overall,” said Malek. “He wrestled with great intensity but unfortunately came up just short.”
Salem had one place winner, Jeremy Muncy at 113. He got byes through the first two rounds, then pinned his way into the finals. Jeremy pinned Logan Eberhardt of Blacksburg in the quarterfinal round in 3:53, then put shoulders to the mat in just 58 seconds in a win over Gabe Hobbs of Hidden Valley in the semifinals.
In the championship round Muncy went up against Alex Janney of Patrick Henry, who is undefeated. Janney took a 7-5 decision in a hard-fought match and Muncy is now 7-2 on the young season.
Several Spartans won two matches but couldn’t continue when the wrestle-backs were eliminated, including Alex Royston, Christian Crawley and David Patterson.
This weekend Salem will compete in the “Knights of the Round Table” tournament at Cave Spring on Friday and Saturday. Glenvar is off until a tri-match at Lord Botetourt next Wednesday, December 20.
“I’m looking forward to a week without any matches because we have plenty of areas to improve.”