Chesapeake, Fairland place four wrestlers at Gallipolis tournament

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, January 3, 2006

GALLIPOLIS — Two teams, eight places.

The Chesapeake Panthers and Fairland Dragons each place four wrestlers in the Gallipolis Invitaional Tournament last Wednesday.

Brad Eldred was the 189-pound division champion as he won all four of his matches.

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Tyler Cravens took second place at 125.

Erik McWhorter was also in second place at 215.

Brad Wiley finished fourth at 275. Thomas Lewis was fourth in the 119 class.

“The kids did a good job. The competition was pretty good. It was a good tournament,” Panthers coach Phil Davis said.

The Dragons had four wrestlers place led by Michael Evans who finished first in the 140-pound class with a 4-0 record.

Chuck Wentz went 3-1 to take second in the 112 division.

Evans and Wentz each registered their 100th career wins during the tournament.

“In the four years since we’ve started wrestling back up, they’re the only two to have accomplished this feat. That’s pretty impressive,” Fairland coach Chuck Wentz said.

Will Lively at 125 was 2-2 to finish fourth.

Stephen Walker also went 2-2 and was fourth in the 189 class.

“We’ve had seven different kids place his season. We’re coming along. We’re a really young team with only three seniors,” coach Wentz said.

“Will Lively and Stephen Walker have really improved. We’re getting better as a team.”

Point Pleasant, W.Va., won the tournament with Belpre second and host Gallipolis third.

Chesapeake had 43 points to take fifth place and Fairland was one point behind to take sixth place in the 11-team field.

Chesapeake wrestles Friday and Saturday at the Nitro (W.Va.) Invitational. Fairland goes to River Valley on Saturday.

Here are the Gallipolis Invitational final team standings:

1. Pt. Pleasant 94, 2. Belpre 92, 3. Gallipolis 70, 4. Jackson 50, 5. Chesapeake 43, 6. Fairland 42, 7. Meigs 31, 8. Nelsonville-York 21, 9. River Valley 17, 10. Wellston 14, 11. Wahama, W.Va. 0.