The Glenvar and Salem High School wrestling teams opened their seasons in tournaments last weekend with Glenvar winning the Fightin’ Blues Invitational at Parry McCluer and Salem taking fourth in the River Rumble at Staunton River High in Moneta. This weekend they’ll be in the same gym as both are competing in the “Titan Toughman Tournament” at Hidden Valley High School.
The two-day event at Hidden Valley will begin with matches at 3 pm Friday afternoon and continue into the evening. It will pick up at 10 am Saturday with the championship matches sometime in the late afternoon or early evening. There are 21 teams scheduled to compete in one of the top early season tournaments of the season.
Glenvar got the season off to a great start with a win in the 12 team invitational in Buena Vista, with a nice mix of Class 1, 2 and 3 teams competing.
“The team competed very well for their first tournament of the year,” said Highlander coach Jason Cline. “I’m very pleased with the performance and hope to see us continue to improve as we roll through the early part of the season.”
Four Highlanders took first places at Parry McCluer, River Smith at 113, Jake Cline at 132, Trey Lawrence at 145 and Ethan Flowers at 152. Lawrence won the middleweight MVP award for most outstanding wrestler.
Chase Miller was third at 160 while Wesley Heltzel was third at 182. Fourth places went to Alan Vu at 106 and Mason Hylton at 120.
At Staunton River High Salem had nine place winners in taking fourth as a team. Freshman Owen Page was runnerup at 106 and another freshman, Matthew McNeil, was third at 152. Fourth places went to Ty Porter at 120, Caden Thomas at 126 and Haden Smith at 132. The Spartans had four fifth place finishers, David Conklin at 113, Kyman Kinney at 138, Avery Hall at 145 and James Brooks at 182.
“We had several athletes out because they were still playing football,” said Salem coach Lawrence Van Liew. “I thought we had a great first tournament of the year. I’m excited to have 38 athletes competing for 14 spots. Our competition inside the room makes us very tough outside the room.”
The Spartans were scheduled to wrestle at Pulaski on Wednesday against the host Cougars and Carroll County, but results were too late for publication.