St. Christopher's opened the 2011-12 wrestling season with a solid 5th place finish at the 40th Annual Hopewell Wrestling Classic on December 2-3. Arguably one of the toughest opening weekend tournaments in the state, the Hopewell Classic attracts some of the premiere wrestling teams in Virginia which was the case with this year's Classic.

Perennial VHSL Group AAA powerhouse Colonial Forge made the trip from Stafford for the first time a memorable one- taking home overall honors. St. Christopher's wrestled well - finishing ahead of local powers Matoaca and Hanover, who will slug it out in February for the Central Regional title.

A total of ten Saints grapplers finished the weekend in the top eight of their weight class, led by junior Robert Janis, who took home the title at 145 lbs. with a solid 3-2 win in the finals over Forge's returning AAA State placer Sean Murphy.

Senior Quent Alcorn finished in third place at 182 lbs, as did junior Marshall Hollerith at 220.

Senior Tyler Cornett returned to the mats for the first time in almost a year after losing the 2010-11 to an elbow injury and brought home a fourth place finish at 160 lbs.

Senior Andy Pitts finished in 5th place at 126 lbs, while sophomore William Kelly was sixth at 106.

Freshman Carrington Lanier made his first career start for the Saints and took home 7th place at 170. Charles Moore also finished 7th at 195 lbs. Junior William Cabell ended up in 8th place in the tournament's deepest weight class - 138 lbs.

Seven out of the eight quarterfinal wrestlers earned state honors last season. Sophomore Ian Saunders rounded out the St. Christopher's place winners with an 8th place effort at 152 lbs. in his first competition at the varsity level.
 

 

Colonial Forge won the event by over 150 points over runner-up Frank W. Cox HS from Virginia Beach. The Eagles won two weight classes: 182 and 220 lbs, but had five other finalists to pace the field. New Kent, a top VHSL AA program finished in 3rd place.

Former St. Christopher's wrestler Brandon Jeske, a junior at Frank W. Cox won the 126 lb. title. He will be looking for his second straight VHSL AAA state title this season to add to his VISAA championship and National Prep runner-up finish as a freshman in 2009. 

The Saints will return to the mats on Saturday, December 10th at home with the 3rd Annual St. Christopher's Invitational. The action will begin at 8:30 am. Brookville, Franklin County and Matoaca will bring tough teams to the St. Christopher's Invite and look to challenge the Saints for the team title.

You can follow the action on Trackwrestling.com, with weight by weight updates provided all day.