ACHS Raider wrestlers compete at LCA
Gage Meador (top) of Appomattox controls the arm of Caleb Callaham from E.C. Glass during Saturday’s LCA Invitational. Meador won the match and was the Raiders’ highest-ranked finisher, coming in fourth place in the 182-pound division. Charles Conrad/Times Virginian

On Saturday, the Appomattox Raiders wrestling team participated in the 2022 LCA Invitational, hosted by Liberty Christian Academy in Lynchburg. The gymnasium was a full house as 24 teams competed.

Appomattox finished 10th overall with a team score of 82. The winning team was Grassfield with 188 points. The host team, LCA, was sixth with 126.5 points.

Gage Meador was the top finisher of the day for Appomattox, placing fourth in the 182-pound division and scored 17 team points.

Meader received a bye in round one but won by fall (otherwise known as a pin) over Caleb Callaham of E.C. Glass in round two at the 4:46 mark, and won by fall in under a minute (0:48) over Ben Calkins of Jefferson Forest in the quarterfinals.

In the semifinal round, Meador was pinned at 2:23 by Conner Shiflett of Lord Boutetort and then lost the third place match to Landon Marquis of Rustburg by fall at 4:25.

C.J. Jones was the highest scorer for the Raiders with 19 team points, placing fifth in the 285-pound division.

After a first round bye, Jones pinned Daniel Terrones-Lara of Randolph-Henry at the 1:23 mark in round two but was pinned at 18 seconds in the quarterfinal round by Kenneth Crump of Liberty-Bedford.

In the consolation rounds, Jones pinned Kojo Osafo-Mensah of Washington, Dakota Gilliam of James River-Buchanan and Jake Lee of Jefferson Forest.

Daniel Bradley earned 12 team points for the Raiders, placing sixth in the 152-pound division.

Bradley lost by fall in round one to Kristofer Bitterman of Grassfield. He then scored three wins by fall in the consolation rounds over Ben Baez of E.C. Glass, Jackson Salem of Salem and Tucker Towle of Rockbridge County before falling in the fifth place match to Charlie Thomas of Washington.

In the 120-pound division, Toby Almond gave the Raiders 11 team points while placing seventh.

Almond pinned James Gausepohl of Hanover in round one and fell to J.B. Dragovich of Hidden Valley in the quarterfinal. In the consolation rounds, Almond pinned Jackson Poling of Brookville, lost by decision to Craig Bowyer of James River-Buchanan, and pinned Ja`Maure Brown of Waynesboro in the seventh place match.

Toby Bryant was eighth in the 170-pound division, scoring 10 points for Appomattox.

There’s more to this in the current issue of the Times Virginian newspaper. Support local journalism by purchasing the issue at a local newsstand or subscribing at www.timesvirginian.com/subscriber_services to receive the print edition or view the full article in the e-edition version.