Blacksburg High School’s Samuel Baker finished fourth at the Big Orange wrestling tournament.
Virginia Tech wrestling’s redshirt senior David McFadden placed second at the 2019 Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in Illinois Monday night.
McFadden went 4-1 between Sunday and Monday to claim second place. Ranked sixth in the country by InterMat, McFadden ended his tournament with a 5-3 loss to No. 2 Alex Marinelli of Iowa.
McFadden began the Midlands on Sunday with wins over North Carolina’s Sawyer Davidson and Northern Illinois’s Izzak Olejnik in the rounds of 32 and 16, respectively. Sunday night, he advanced to the semifinals with a 5-2 decision win over Danny Braunagel of Illinois in the quarterfinals.
McFadden punched his ticket to the finals Monday afternoon after a thrilling last-second victory over No. 3 Evan Wick. Down 5-4, McFadden pulled off a takedown with less than 10 seconds remaining in the match to upset the Badger and move on to the championship. McFadden improved to 3-0 against Wick in his career.
With his wins at the Midlands Championships, McFadden now has 98 career wins, which moves him in front of current Virginia Tech assistant coach Jared Haught on the Virginia Tech all-time wins list. McFadden is now tied for 13th on the list with Scott Justus.
In other Hokies wrestling news, Jake Hart and Sam Latona competed at the 2020 Southern Scuffle this past Wednesday and Thursday.
Hart is 5-0 on the season and won the title at the 2019 Southeast Open in Roanoke. Latona is 11-1 and has won titles at both the 2019 ARMS Software/GMU Patriots Open and Southeast Open. Latona will compete unattached.
In high school wrestling, Blacksburg High School placed eighth among 27 schools in the Big Orange Classic wrestling tournament at William Byrd High School in Vinton on December 28.
Rural Retreat was the team winner among 27 schools competing.
Placing in the Top six for the Bruins were Tayzon Nicholson with a third at 126, Samuel Baker with a fourth at 152, Gavin Snyder at fourth at 160, Tharun Svetanant with a sixth at 132 and Peacock Oliver with a sixth at 170.
Several Christiansburg middle-school club kids competed in the Powerade Junior Tournament in Pennsylvania this past week with Chase Miller bringing home the gold at 124 lbs.
Two other Virginia Elite wrestlers based out of Christiansburg stepped up to the plate at a tournament in Iowa. Brady Hand placed second, losing by one point to the Iowa State Champ and Tulsa Nationals placer. Luke Hand placed third.
Several other Virginia Elite wrestlers also competed in Pennsylvania at the recent North Allegheny Young Guns Tournament and brought home trophies. They included John Wesley Bolen (second), Stephen Bolen (third) and Titus Bolen and Caleb and Joel Swanson (all placing fourth).
–Staff reports
