Wrestling team wins Viking Smash

Berkeley Springs won the seven-team Viking Smash Wrestling Tournament, held in Petersburg on January 26 and 27. The Indians were 6-1 in the round robin tournament, the same as Grafton, but Berkeley Springs claimed the team title because they defeated the Bearcats in their dual meet 46-36.

The only loss suffered by Berkeley Springs was to Petersburg, 42-34, but the Vikings lost two matches to finish third.

Berkeley Springs, who fielded nine of the 14 weight classes, compiled overall individual records of 54-9 in the two-day event. Derek Hovermale, Tyson Bennett and Cody Reed were each 7-0. Richard Marshall, Josh Connor, Brad Reed, A.J. Blankenship and Jake Stotler were all 6-1, while Caleb Smalley finished the tournament with a 3-4 record.

"I thought we wrestled well," said Berkeley Springs coach Darrell Bennett. "We were able to move kids around and fill nine weight classes, which really helped. This was just about as good as we could have expected."

The Indians also defeated Keyser 35 to 21, Frankfort 40 to 36, Liberty Harrison 47-12, Philip Barbour 48-27 and Lincoln 53-18.

Tyson Bennett was voted the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler.

With just two weeks remaining in the regular season, the Berkeley Springs grapplers will be trying to improve on the following impressive records: Cody Reed (189) is 37-2, Tyson Bennett (160) is 33-3, Derek Hovermale (103) is 30-3, Josh Connor (112) is 26-6, A.J. Blankenship (125) is 25-8, Brad Reed (119) is 24-11, Jake Stotler (285) is 12-6, Richard Marshall (112) is 20-11 and Caleb Smalley (171) is 12-17.

The Indians, 8-2 in dual meets, will host the Potomac Valley Conference Tournament this Saturday, February 3, beginning at 12 p.m. and will then conclude the regular season at the Martinsburg Quadrangular on Friday, February 9.