HARRISONBURG – With a fourth place finish at 160 pounds of the Region III wrestling tournament, senior Clayton Talkington was the lone Alleghany wrestler to secure a berth in this weekend’s Group AA tournament at the Salem Civic Center.
Host Turner Ashby won four individual weight classes en route to winning the team title Saturday evening, besting second place Brookville, 212-193. Alleghany finished 12th out of 22 teams.
Talkington posted a 2-0 record on Friday by pinning Turner Ashby’s Josh Powers in 1:57 in his first match and pinning Wilson Memorial’s Luke Trainum in 1:51 in the quarterfinals.
He lost his championship semifinal match to Waynesboro’s Doug Williams, 8-4, before bouncing back to decision Amherst’s Austin Holmes, 5-2, to punch his ticket to the Group AA tournament.
Talkington dropped his third/fourth place match to Jefferson Forest’s Alex Cox by pinfall.
112-pounder Derek Burhenn just missed going to states after falling in the consolation semifinals to Harrisonburg’s Henry Valladares-Cruz, 6-2.
Cole Murray also just missed advancing to the Group AA tournament after falling in his consolation semifinal match to Broadway’s Garrett Lam, 4-1.
Casey Bradberry dropped a close 12-10 decision in his first match Friday before rebounding to pin Wilson Memorial’s Ethan Calvert in 30 seconds. In his second match in the consolation bracket, Bradberry’s season came to an end after dropping a 9-5 decision to E.C. Glass’ Addison Spinner.
Travis Herald won his first match Friday by decisioning Gabe Bosen of E.C. Glass, 8-6. Herald was then pinned by eventual 130-pound champ Blake Wilkerson of Robert E. Lee and saw his season come to a close after dropping a 5-1 decision to Lord Botetourt’s Zach Hodges in the consolation bracket.
Senior Daniel Shifflett his first match over Wilson Memorial’s Jonathan Phuong by pinfall before injuring his arm in his second match of the day and having to forfeit the rest of his matches.
The Group AA tournament is slated to begin at 9:30 a.m. Friday morning at the Salem Civic Center.