THE SPORTS DESK
Prep Wrestling Notepad: Favorites have grip on weight classes
Today The Free Lance–Star takes its first crack at wrestling rankings in some time—an (imperfect, we’re sure) attempt to list the top three at each weight across all the Fredericksburg region’s high schools.
Take ’em with a grain of salt. And if you see a glaring error, we want to know about it at jrice@freelancestar.com.
106: 1. Josh Nail, Colonial Forge; 2. Michael Rinker, Massaponax; 3. Either D.J. Ahalt of Courtland or Eastern View’s Yarhoski Aldiva—that should make for a good Battlefield District tournament pairing.
113: 1. Bryce Gentry, Colonial Forge; 2. Isaiah Coleman–Combs, Orange; 3. Bryan Ramey, Eastern View though Coleman–Combs and Ramey could easily be flipped.
120: 1. Josue Beltran, Mountain View; 2. Dylan Hunziker, Colonial Forge; 3. Brett Shurina, Eastern View. Chancellor’s Joe Cafiero could easily be No. 3 instead.
126: 1. Dylan Thompson, North Stafford, even though he’s not faced many local wrestlers at this weight yet this season—most notably 2. J.D. Stone, Colonial Forge; 3. Calvin Nerove, Mountain View but the third spot here was tough to call.
132: 1. Curtis Harris, Colonial Forge; 2. Hugh Morris, Orange; 3. Mark Weinstock, Chancellor but this top three could easily be reshuffled.
138: 1. William Inserra, North Stafford; 2 and 3. Ask Colonial Forge to pick—Nico Dunbar has wins against much of the district; teammate Daniel May doesn’t, but he has a 2–1 win against Dunbar.
145: 1. Tony Neis, Colonial Forge; 2. Austin Jenkins, Eastern View (though Neis–Jenkins is a match we’d like to see); 3. Bruce Schelegel, Orange.
152: It seems like the district tournament will decide No. 1 and 2 between Orange’s Ryan Almond and Colonial Forge’s Sean Murphy. 3. Shane Ice, Brooke Point.
160: 1. Sean Raftery, Orange; 2. Jared Swan, Mountain View; 3. Mason Woodall, Colonial Forge.
170: 1. Zach Ryder, Orange; 2. Anthony Carter, Colonial Forge; 3. Isaiah Garrett, Stafford. Honorable mention: Jacob Tucker, King George.
182: 1. Zack Martinez, Colonial Forge; 2. Chris Berrios, Riverbend; 3. Josh Thomas, Spotsylvania but another weight where we could be convinced otherwise (outside of clear No. 1 Martinez).
195: 1. Jacob Ralph, North Stafford; 2. Chris Carter, Colonial Forge; 3. Brandon Gallahan, Chancellor.
220: 1. Cameron Houston, Stafford; 2. Patrick Grayson, Colonial Forge; 3. Jamie Deason, Riverbend (with a nod to Culpeper’s Dakota Brackenridge).
285: 1. Billy Knabe, Orange (who is as firm a No. 1 as we have in these rankings); 2. Stephen Harris, Stafford; 3. Aston Williams, Colonial Forge.
—Justin Rice
