The James River wrestling team competed in a tri-match at Rockbridge County High School last week. Robert E. Lee of Staunton and the host Wildcats joined the Knights on the mats as River split, beating Lee but falling to host Rockbridge.

Against Robert E. Lee, the Knights won 58-15 in a well-rounded performance. Against Rockbridge they lost, 48-30, with two forfeits.

“I’m pleased with our performance,” said River coach Bobby Stewart. “Against Rockbridge we lost by 18 and 12 of those points were forfeits due to us not having 138- and 145-pound wrestlers. We had one match that was a nail-biter that we lost, and two matches that should have went the other way. We competed with Rockbridge, a much larger 3A school.”

River had quite a few freshmen competing in the match.

“It must be remembered that when a 14-year-old freshman wrestles 17- and 18-year-old juniors and seniors, there’s a lot of maturity difference,” said Stewart. “As we build confidence in our young wrestlers they will start peaking in performance. We will keep getting better as time goes on.”

River is back in action this Saturday at Madison County High School for an individual tournament.