Area well represented in girls wrestling
Dec. 14—Area wrestling fans might notice something about the first girls wrestling rankings.
Based on returning scorers from last year's girls state tournament, four of the teams in the top 10 are from southern West Virginia. Two of them are from Raleigh County — No. 5 Liberty and No. 6 Shady Spring.
Also in the top 10 are eighth-ranked Oak Hill and No. 10 Nicholas County.
Except for Oak Hill, those teams will be represented at Shady Spring on Friday for the second annual Shady Spring Scuffle girls tournament.
"We're getting a lot more girls out, it seems, lately," Shady Spring coach Anthony Shrewsberry said. "There's still really quality girls up north, but it seems like there's not as many girls teams. They're a little farther apart. We're lucky that we have, in this region, Nicholas County's got several girls and Liberty Raleigh's got several and PikeView, us, Oak Hill. We've got quite a few. Midland Trail's got one or two.
"There's quite a few in this region wrestling, and I think that's because for the last 10 years there's been a girl or two on three or four different teams in the region every year on the boys high school teams. They've kind of led the way from wrestling the boys. All these younger girls that saw them as pee-wee wrestlers are in high school now."
The area also has several girls wrestlers in the individual rankings.
Liberty has top-ranked senior Karlie Osborne, the reigning 138-pound state champion, No. 2 Luci Farris (152), No. 3 Maddy Lucas (185), No. 4 London Cook (100) and No. 8 Rylei Belcher (132).
Shady Spring senior Brooklynn McClure is third at 100. Fellow senior Abigail Hamilton is third at 145.
Nicholas County has sophomore Zoee Meadows fifth at 126 and junior MaKenzie Hanshaw third at 132.
Although Kirclyn Coleman will be joining the Oak Hill boys team in the Eastern Panhandle this weekend, she is the state's top-ranked 114-pounder after winning the state title last year. She scored all 30 Oak Hill points at the state tournament.
Also ranked is Greenbrier East's TaNaya Sanchez, seventh at 132.
The host Tigers will not be represented as well as had hoped after a few girls decided not to come back. They got started two weeks ago at the Mountain State Tussle at Blennerhassett. The Tigers took only three girls and finished third. Clara Ealy took first place in a combined 100/107/114 class. Abigail Honaker was third at 145 and Kamryn Ciochetty fourth at 132.
McClure is a three-time place winner in the girls state tournament and twice has qualified for the boys tournament. Braylee Grove is a freshman at either 120 or 126, but was injured days before the Mountain State Tussle and will be out 4 to 5 weeks.
Carlee Vanatter-Grove, a state runner-up at 165 last season, Alexus Wilkinson (fourth at 235) and twin sister Lena Wilkinson and Leslie Ward all opted not to return this season.
Joining the Tigers on Friday will be Liberty, Riverside, Virginia Episcopal, Princeton, PikeView, Parkersburg South, Midland Trail, Greenbrier East, Ripley, Richlands, Va., Nicholas County and Elkins.
Spring Valley's Ciara Riner, last year's state champ at 126, finished fourth last weekend at the Women of Ironman Championships.
Doors will open at 3 p.m., with wrestling starting at 4 p.m. on four mats in both gyms. It will be a bracketed tournament under the Madison weight system.
Email: gfauber@register-herald.com; follow on Twitter @gfauber5
