FAVORITES LEAD GROUP A FIELD IN WRESTLING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, February 22, 1992                   TAG: 9202220344
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: PHYLLIS A. FAIR SPORTSWRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
FAVORITES LEAD GROUP A FIELD IN WRESTLING
The first day of competition at the state Group A wrestling tournament at the Salem Civic Center went as expected with the favorites taking the top 10 positions on Friday.
Sussex is in first place with 72 1/2 points followed by Brentsville District with 62 1/2 and two-time defending state champions Mathews with 45 1/2.
Stuarts Draft is in fourth with 45 points, and James River is fifth with 40 points.
Chilhowie is 12th with 26 points. Glenvar has 21 points and is 16th. Parry McCluer is tied for 17th with 20 1/2 and Narrows has 19 points.
The tournament concludes today with the quarterfinal consolations at noon. They will be followed by the semifinals, consolation semifinals, consolation finals and championship finals.
Brentsville, one of the favorites to win the title, received a major blow when three-time state champion Wes Hugh was disqualified last weekend at the Region B tournament.
The 189-pound Hugh, who was called for a flagrant foul, was favored to win his fourth title.
Brentsville coach Thad Kiesnowski had no comment regarding Hugh.
Tournament director Larry Hall said losing Hugh hurt Brentsville.
"By losing him, it really offset their chance to win the tournament, which they still can do," Hall said.
As far as the other teams, Hall said he expected the ones that are in the top five to be there.
"For the past few years the A region has been strong, which is evident with Mathews winning the past couple of years," he said. "The C region is strong individually with the likes of [Brandon] Semones and [Jason] Porter."
But the region doesn't have a team strong enough to compete, Hall said.
Although Sussex Central has a commanding lead, Hall said the team title will be decided in the semifinals because that's the round when a team can accumulate a lot of points.
"If a team can put four or five wrestlers in the finals, it has an excellent chance to win," he said.
James River would like to place several wrestlers there, said Knights coach Otis Timberlake.
Timberlake said he was pleased with the way things had gone.
"Basically I thought where we won we would except for two," he said. "The kids wrestled well. We had five guys get through the first round and three in the second."
Timberlake said he was surprised at the margin between the top teams.
"I thought it would be a three-team race for the top with Sussex Central, Mathews and Brentsville," he said. "Sussex Central is kind of walking away with it."
The seven returning state champions advanced to today's semifinals: Brentsville's Jess Moore (112), Manassas Park's David Richards (125), Mathews' Erich Nizsche (135), Glenvar's Porter (152) and Semones (171), Sussex Central's Antonio Procise (189) and Stuart Draft's Eric Wells at heavyweight.
\ NOTE: Team scores are in the New River Valley edition.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB