Six members of Nansemond River High School’s wrestling team, led by sophomore heavyweight Dia Gray, showed they may be able to claim some regional titles and possibly more this season after strong showings on the mat this weekend.

Gray won the 285-pound weight class, and in other weight classes, two of his teammates placed second, one placed third, one placed fifth and one placed sixth in the sixth annual Mike Duman Toys for Tots Holiday Invitational at Nansemond River High School.

“I think overall we did OK,” Warriors coach Tripp Seed said, though he noted a couple of his wrestlers were out, either due to illness or because they were out of town.

Nansemond River finished with 159.5 points as a team, good for sixth out of the 23 teams participating. Woodbridge Senior High School took first with 240.5 points.

But Dia Gray ended the invitational on a high note for the Warriors.

“He had a great tournament; he beat the kid from Smithfield (High School) in the finals who was the (Group 4A) state runner-up last year,” Seed said. “He lost to that kid last year, so I felt like that was a big win for him overall.”

The heavyweight finals pitted Gray, the fifth place wrestler at the Group 4A state level last season, against Smithfield junior Ross Manfred. Gray prevailed by a 3-1 decision.

Commenting on what the win meant to him, Gray said, “It feels amazing.”

Last year, he placed fourth in the 220-pound weight class of the same invitational.

Lakeland High School senior heavyweight Travis Jones took fifth this year.

Tournament coordinator and Warriors assistant coach John Bostwick was pleased with how the sixth edition of the popular invitational went.

“We got a good bit of people to come out and watch,” he said. “I would say at least 300 to 400 people or so.”

A number of them took advantage of the offer of a reduced ticket price on Friday if they brought a new, unwrapped toy to donate to Toys for Tots. The organization provided its boxes for the donated items.

“We had four full boxes,” Bostwick said.

Senior 120-pounder James Boone was one of Nansemond River’s two second-place finishers, falling by a 7-5 decision in the final.

“He had a good tournament,” Seed said.

Junior Malcolm Dawson finished fifth in the 113-pound class. Seed said he thought Dawson should have been in the finals and later noted that both Boone and Dawson just need to cut out some mistakes, and they will win.

Warriors senior Hunter Hill finished second in the 132-pound class, losing by a 7-4 decision, but also had the look to Seed of someone who was a few bits of development away from being the winner.

The coach said Hill gave up two takedowns in the last five seconds of two periods.

“You take those two takedowns away, he wins the match,” Seed said.

Junior Malik Neely impressed in the 152-pound class, finishing third.

“He surprised some of us,” Seed said.

After losing the quarterfinals, Neely won five straight matches to claim third.

Seed said in one match, Neely was losing by three, then got an escape, took his opponent down, went into overtime and took him down again for the win.

The coach said Neely put in time in the offseason and has turned a corner and is wrestling well now.

Warriors freshman Ben Sammons placed sixth in the 220-pound weight class.

“He’s working hard. He’s still inexperienced, still a little undersized for 220,” Seed said, adding he should probably be in a lower weight class. “He’s improving, he’s coming along.”

Nansemond River’s wrestling team returns to the mat on Jan. 2 and 3 when it goes to Eastern View High School to compete in eight dual meets in two days.