Warriors win PenSouth wrestling crown
Published 9:37 pm Tuesday, February 9, 2016
![The Nansemond River wrestling team celebrates after claiming the PenSouth Conference championship on Saturday at Nansemond River High School. Thirteen Warriors qualified for regionals, 11 of them reached Saturday's conference finals and five won individual conference titles in their weight classes. (Jennifer Lozano photo)](https://www.suffolknewsherald.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2016/02/20160206_172637_resized.jpg)
The Nansemond River wrestling team celebrates after claiming the PenSouth Conference championship on Saturday at Nansemond River High School. Thirteen Warriors qualified for regionals, 11 of them reached Saturday’s conference finals and five won individual conference titles in their weight classes. (Jennifer Lozano photo)
The Nansemond River wrestling team won its third straight conference championship and first in the PenSouth Conference on Saturday at Nansemond River High School.
The Warriors produced 244 points, saw 11 wrestlers reach the finals and had 13 qualify for regionals by placing within the top four of their respective weight classes. Kecoughtan High School took second in the tournament with 187 points and had five champions.
“I think we performed pretty well,” Nansemond River coach Tripp Seed said. “Overall, I was thinking we’d have about five champions, and that’s what we ended up having.”
One champion that stood out to Seed was sophomore 120-pounder McKale Cannon, who won his title by defeating Kecoughtan junior Diego Boykin.
“He tech-falled that kid in the finals, and that kid’s pretty tough,” Seed said, noting that Boykin was never really in the match.
A technical fall refers to a win by 15 points or more, and Cannon won 17-1.
Other Nansemond River winners included junior heavyweight Dia Gray, who pinned Gloucester High School senior Nathanael Van Ness in four minutes and 50 seconds.
Warriors senior Malcolm Dawson won the 113-pound weight class by pinning Warwick High School freshman Muhammad Quason in one minute and 30 seconds.
NR sophomore Derrick Cannon won the 106-pound weight class by a 14-2 major decision against Warwick freshman Dillon Messick.
Warriors sophomore Daniel Peacher won the 138-pound weight class by 9-5 decision against Gloucester senior Will Neikirk.
Among Nansemond River’s other regional qualifiers were sophomore 132-pounder Matt Culbert, freshman 145-pounder Aaron Whear, senior 152-pounder Malik Neely, freshman 160-pounder Zach Gray, sophomore 170-pounder Chris Cooper and freshman 195-pounder JaQuell Harrell, all six of which placed second.
Warriors junior 126-pounder Ryan Adams and senior 182-pounder Keoni Broad took third.
Nansemond River won the Ironclad Conference championship in 2014 and 2015 before switching to the Group 5A classification and joining the PenSouth Conference, where it faces all-new teams.
“We didn’t really wrestle many of the teams throughout the year,” Seed said. “I think it was a tougher conference than what we’ve had the past two years.”
Nevertheless, he expected his Warriors to win the conference and said he felt like they could have actually had 13 in the finals.
Kecoughtan senior 145-pounder Kaleb Tucker and Gloucester sophomore 195-pounder Cameron Walker were named the PenSouth Conference Co-Wrestlers of the Year, and Seed was named the conference Coach of the Year.
“It’s nice to get the recognition from everybody else,” Seed said after deflecting the praise significantly.
He noted his assistant coach, John Bostwick, is probably one of the best coaches in the state, if not the nation, and he also said he had a good group of volunteers this year.
This is Seed’s ninth year at the head of Nansemond River’s wrestling program. In addition to the conference championships, the Warriors have been a top-four team in the region the last two years.
The Region 5A South championships will begin on Friday at Green Run High School, with a field that Seed expects to be quite challenging.
“I think we can be a top-five to (top-)eight team there,” Seed said.
Following are the team results from the PenSouth Conference championships on Saturday:
1) Nansemond River High School, 244.0
2) Kecoughtan High School, 187.0
3) Gloucester High School, 178.5
4) Warwick High School, 143.0
5) Hampton High School, 67.0
6) Bethel High School, 46.0
7) Menchville High School, 0.0