Season Begins at the Hopewell Classic

Wyoming Seminary of PA, St. Christopher’s, Host Hopewell, AAA Cox Take aim at the returning champ Blue Demons

The 2009-2010 wrestling season kicks off on Friday with the Hopewell Classic at Hopewell High School.  The action begins Friday at 4:30pm and can be tracked on www.trackwrestling.com .  The Saturday’s wrestling will begin at 9:30am and the Finals/Medal placement round will begin at 6:00pm.

The Blue Demons are the defending champions of this tournament but will see some tough tests from the field on primarily AAA teams led by Cox High School (the top ranked VA AAA team), Va Private School champion St Christopher’s and nationally ranked Wyoming Seminary of Pennsylvania.  Wyoming is ranked in the top 5 teams in the country by most the national media. 

The Blue Demons will open the season with a VERY young team with only one senior and one junior in the lineup to start the season. 

Two time defending VA State Champion Devin Carter will be wrestling 125 this year and comes into his senior season with 151 career wins.  Last year’s #1 nationally ranked wrestler at 112, finished as the runner up at the 2009 Junior Freestyle Nationals in Fargo, ND and hopes to add even more titles to his outstanding record.  Devin will be the top seed in Hopewell.

Junior Rich Eva will be wrestling 152 this year and will be the 2nd seed this weekend.  As the Blue Demon’s other returning state champion and champion of this event, Rich is expected to add leadership on and off the mat to the young team.

The sophomore class is young but not without their own credentials.  Brady Epperly, a state runner up last year, is seeded #1 this weekend at 140.  James Linkous, another state runner up from last year, will enter the season as the #2 seed.  Tyler Miles, a runner up in this event last year will wrestle 160 this year and will be the #4 seed.  Newcomer Jessie Redford, a Group A 3rd placer last year, joins the Blue Demon lineup at 119 and will be a #5 seed.  Brandon Taylorwill be at 189 and will build on the experience he gained in this tourny last year.  Mark Garnand and Ryan Sharlow round out the sophomore Demons at 171 and 285, respectively. 

Four freshmen will be in the lineup this weekend for the Blue Demons.  Zack Epperly and Logan Bosely will move up from a stellar middle school career to mix it up with the the big boys.  Logan is seeded 5th and Zack will be seeded 6th.  Dan Peoples will get the start at 103.  Another newcomer, Joey Dance, will start the season at 112 .  Joey is coming off a summer in which he was National Champion in freestyle and runner up in greco in Fargo.  Joey will be seeded 3rd. 

Christiansburg will field a “B” team for this event getting the entire team varsity experience.  The B team will be

We will update the results here as they come in. 

The Blue Demons will be heading to The Walsh Ironman in Ohio in the coming week.  That event will be broadcast.  Watch for more details soon.

Tagged as: Blue Demons, christiansburg, Hopewell 2009