Seminole teams try to break Bees grip on wrestling title

The odds are against any team ending Brookville’s 42-year stranglehold on the Seminole District wrestling tournament title today starting at 10 a.m. on the Bees’ home mats. But that’s not going to stop the other six schools, particularly Jefferson Forest and Amherst, from trying.

“It’s going to come down to a lot of final matches we wrestle together,” Cavaliers coach Hutch Hutchinson said following last Wednesday’s regular-season-ending dual meet loss to the Bees at JF. “They’ll have a lot in the finals and so will we.”

The Bees’ confidence is surging after dominating Forest 47-21 to clinch both the district’s regular-season title and the Brookville Duals Tournament. They finished 15-2 in duals, with their only losses to nationally-ranked Christiansburg and Grundy.

Brookville topped that off by winning Saturday’s Big Orange Tournament hosted by William Byrd for the first time ever, edging Franklin County and the Golden Wave.

“That showed that not only are we a good dual meet team, but we’re a good tournament team as well,” Bees coach Don Shuler said.

 He definitely isn’t going to overlook the Cavaliers, Brookville’s biggest rivals, or the Lancers, his former team, today. Consolation finals are tentatively set to begin at 2:30 p.m. and championship finals will follow at approximately 4:30.

“Jefferson Forest is a tough team,” Shuler said, noting it finished second to the Bees by a 250.5 to 206 count at last year’s tournament hosted by Rustburg. “It’s going to be a battle. It’ll be close. There’s just so many good wrestlers in our district. JF has a strong team, Amherst has a strong team and there are good wrestlers off and on on the rest of the teams. You can’t predict what’s going to happen.

“It’s just a fight and that’s what’s good about it,” he added. “Everybody’s going to be vying for position. We’ve got to win certain matches. If we do that, we’ll be fine.”

Brookville received six No. 1 seeds at Wednesday night’s seeding meeting — Trung Duong at 126 pounds, Jackson Clark at 138, Josh Lancaster at 145, Trevor Bruffy at 170, Derek Thurman, last year’s Seminole District wrestler of the year, at 182 and Vic Montalbano, who, like Thurman, is undefeated, at 220.

The Bees’ Luke Stewart, who placed fourth at last year’s Group AA state meet at 119 pounds, went 4-0 in district matches but was seeded second at 132 behind Amherst’s Justin Mays, who went 5-1. Brookville’s Landon Curry, last year’s 103-pound district champion, was seeded second at 113 even though he beat the top seed from E.C. Glass, Carter Lovern, who was 5-1 in district competition and is 34-2 overall this season, in the regular-season bout.

Glass also has the top-seeded heavyweight, McKenzie Garnett, who was 6-0 in district dual meets. 

Shuler anticipates a fiercely competitive rematch between Lancaster and JF’s Caleb Prather if both advance to the 145-pound final. In the regular-season-ending showdown, Lancaster scored a late takedown on the edge of the mat to pull away for a 5-1 decision.

“There’ll be some good matchups right off the bat,” Shuler said. “It’s going to be interesting. The semifinal matches are sometimes the most exciting and the most points are scored there, from 12 to 15 points.”

The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to next Saturday’s Region III tournament at Turner Ashby.

“If you lose in the semis and lose again, you’re done,” Shuler said. “Then you’re going for fifth and sixth.”