By Stephen Henderson
It was a tough weekend for Patrick County High School’s Cougar wrestling team in Christiansburg last weekend when the Cougars battled some of the toughest competition in the state for the Region 3D Wrestling Championships held at Christiansburg High School.
Twelve Cougars made the trip, and six made it to the medal stand, including Alfredo Gutierrez, who will advance to state competition next week at Churchland High School in Portsmouth.
Gutierrez placed fourth in the 106-pound weight class, earning the trip to state.
He started the tournament with a first-round bye and won his second round match against Northside with a 12-8 decision. Gutierrez lost to Lord Botetourt in the semifinals, forcing him to wrestle back through the consolation rounds to make it to the third/fourth consolation finals.
In his first consolation match, he defeated Alleghany with a pin in 1:48. In the consolation finals, he fell to Cave Spring by pin in 4:24 to claim fourth in the region.
Two Cougars claimed fifth place medals; they were Darious Williams at 132 lbs. and Hunter Kenyon at 195 lbs.
Williams won his fifth-place match by forfeit, and Kenyon won an 8-4 decision over his Northside opponent.
Brian Lange placed sixth after falling to Alleghany in the consolation finals. Owen Smith also won a sixth-place medal at 120 lbs., falling to Hidden Valley. Josh Baker placed sixth after being forced to forfeit his final match due to a shoulder injury.
Ethan Rorrer (126), Jeremy Gunter (138), AJ Robertson (145), Jake Howe (152), Dionte Nowlin (220) and Derek Howard (HWT) also competed for the Cougars.
Gutierrez took a very careful route to reaching his wrestling weight of 106 lbs. over the past two months, gradually cutting his weight by the prescribed state weight control format to reach his final wrestling weight. He had been wrestling at that weight class for only three weeks before amassing a record of 12-1.
“I am really proud to represent the team at the state tournament,” Gutierrez said. “It was really tough to lose the weight to get to 106. It took two months to lose 26 pounds,” he said. “I’m looking forward to next week to work really hard to place at states,” he added.
According to Coach Robert Cunningham, the tough region made it difficult for the Cougars to show their true abilities. “This is one of the toughest regions in the state with state champions Christiansburg, Cave Spring, Hidden Valley and Staunton River. We knew we were the underdogs from the start, but we did have six guys who medaled at the tournament,” he said.
“A couple matches didn’t go our way on the second day, but we are proud of the six who placed,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham said that several Cougar wrestlers will continue to work with Alfredo this week “to perfect our craft and get Alfredo ready to wrestle six minutes every time he may need to. He’s going to be ready,” he said.
Cunningham wanted to thank this year’s seniors who will be leaving the team. “There are nine of them. Thank you for your leadership and all that you did for the team this year. I know you will do well in the future,” he said.
