Head coach Matt Osborne told his Beckley grapplers ahead of the Coalfield Conference Wrestling Tournament that Saturday’s event at Liberty High School was a practice test for this weekends regional showdown.
Based on the overall results, the Flying Eagles could be in store for another strong state tournament run at the end of the month in Huntington.
Placing eight wrestlers in the finals and bringing home five individual titles, Beckley won its third straight Coalfield Conference crown besting second-place Greenbrier West by nearly 50 points.
“I am not sure how many kids placed, but some of our JV kids placed. We have a couple of really tough JV kids that could probably start for as lot of people,” Osborne said. “I like where we are at, but we still have a lot of work to do.”
Garrett Johnson (113), Tyler Roark (132), J.J. Bailes (138), Troy Harris (144), Jacob Reeves (165) all placed first, while Landon Osborne (126), Vance Neal (157) and Landon Jones (215), finished runner-up.
“I like where Coalfields is at in relation to the regionals,” Osborne said. “We were looking at how many state champs we had last year counting (AA-A). I think we had eight between the two classes which is more than any other conference. This is a tougher conference than people give it credit for.”
Freshman Zamier Jones, (106) Dylan Bryant (144) and Nick Dvorak (175) all had strong days with third-place finishes for Beckley.
“I wouldn’t say Nick was a surprise, but he wrestled more to his potential and he gained some confidence,” Osborne said.
Greenbrier West was the top Class A finisher with Tucker Lilly (112), Joevun Robinson (150), Moses Gray (157) and Cole Vandall grabbing titles Saturday.
Matthew Kesterson (106) and Malachi Moore (120) finished second for the Cavaliers.
“We were pretty solid today, but we dropped a couple in the semis that we probably should have won against kids we have beat in the past,” Greenbrier West head coach Jeremy Tincher said. “There were other places where we went out and won matches against kids that we lost earlier in the year.”
Independence was the top Class AA team with two conference champions in J.J. Scarafino (106) and Jesse Adams (190). Caelyb Nichols was runner-up in the 144 pound weight class.
The remaining champions included Luke Kelly (120) from Nicholas County, Braelen Holstein (175) from Shady Spring and Colton Naylor (285) from Oak Hill.
Greenbrier East had a trio of runner-up finishes from Parker Hale (132), Kaden Stone (138) and Carter Hamilton (165).
Gavin Brown (113) and Matthew Hill (175) from Liberty, along Preston Thomas (150) from Nicholas County, Gabe Knoblet (190) from Shady Spring and Kordell Brown (285) from Midland Trail finished runner-up Saturday.
