Photos by Suzanne Witcher
James River had two champions and put three in the finals at the “Takedown the New Year” wrestling tournament at Heritage High School last week.
River finished 11th among 21 teams despite entering just seven wrestlers in six weight classes. Host Heritage won the tournament with 216.5 points, followed by Turner Ashby with 211.5 and William Byrd was third with 165.5.
Xaiden Wynn and Brayden Forbes won individual championships at 106 and 120. Wynn avenged a loss in the Big Orange final with a 6-5 decision over William Byrd’s Darin Witcher in an exciting final. Wynn is now 17-1 on the season.
At 120 Brayden Forbes remained undefeated as he won all four of his matches to improve to 22-0 on the season. He pinned Cody Wimer of Broadway in 1:32 in the championship match.
At 138 River’s Nate Stewart made it to the final before falling to Matt Garland of Heritage. Nate had four pins to reach the final and is now 18-3 on the season.
Also scoring points for the Knights was Jayden Alston at 175, who finished fourth. He’s now 21-10 after wrestling seven matches in two days at Heritage.
Georgia Miller competed in the Mills Godwin Girls Tournament at 126 pounds last week.
“Georgia had some hard fought close matches and got some good experience,” said River coach Bobby Stewart.
This Saturday River will tentatively wrestle in Wise County for a quad, weather pending.
