Tiger Wrestlers Take First in VIC Championship

John Belcher

In what became a season of early Saturday mornings, this past Saturday was no different as the Tigers headed off to the wrestling VIC Championship hosted by Roanoke Catholic. It was on Saturday that 13 Tigers suited up for action, and 13 Tigers came home with hardware. It was a long day, but by the end every Tiger had a medal hanging from his neck. The day was an exciting one with 7 tigers vying for the championship in their perspective weight classes, and the individual effort was incredible as the Tigers arrived back to campus with 5 weight class champions and two runner-ups. It truly was something to watch. 

Right when you think 5 champions would have been the icing on the cake, it was learned through a surprise announcement that Jourden Galloway had been unanimously selected as the Conference Wrestler of the Year.

The day, however, was not done with the individual championships and place winners. The Tigers were in tight competition all tournament long with the Fishburne grapplers (the only conference team to beat the Tigers in regular season competition). Fishburne had inched into first place before the finals round and carried a 5.5 lead as the action kicked off. While it is usually the big guys that come out on top and seal the win for the Tigers, it was the little guys that showed big on championship Saturday. Gab Medlin started his consolation round off down by 5 points before battling back to pin his Fishburne opponent in the second period and making up the 5.5 point deficit the Tigers had in the overall team standings. Other Tigers would continue the trend, and by the end of the night on the far east end of the gym with the American flag in the background gracefully looking over them, the Tiger grapplers would find themselves surrounding Coach Ed Ott and hoisting the conference title trophy in celebration.

Final Results:

106 Gab Medlin  3rd 
113 Ebrahim Al-Aghbari  3rd
120 Sebastian Richardson  4th
126 ———–
132 Kevin Pedersen  Champion
138 Quinn Griffith  Champion
145 Elyas Harris  2nd
152 John Mize  Champion
160 Duc Ngyuen  3rd
170 Joseph Murray  Champion
182 Cameron Spangler  2nd
195 Jourden Galloway  Champion and Conference Wrestler of the Year
220 Addison Saleh  4th
285 Andrew Scott  3rd

Wrestling Champs