Kai Antonio was named the Northern Neck District's most outstanding wrestler for the upper weight classes.

The Eagles’ Moses Oviedo was named the most outstanding wrestler for the lower weight classes, while Lancaster’s Kai Antonio earned the honor for the upper weight classes. Northumberland’s Billy Jackson was named the wrestler of the year.

Lancaster, which was the district runner-up with 98 points, produced three district champions in Antonio, Sam Friday and Colton Hayden. Northumberland was third with 76 points and Essex fourth with 40.

“After finishing the season with 23 wins, I was really excited about our chances at the district meet,” said LHS coach Craig Oren. “Unfortunately, the week leading up to the tournament we had some key injuries that took us totally out of contention. But we were still able to finish second, even with our missing wrestlers.”

Antonio pinned Travis Diggs of Washington & Lee just 48 seconds into the championship match to win gold in the 195-pound weight class.

“Kai [Antonio] wrestled well in the district finals,” said Oren. “He has some real tough competition in the upcoming region tournament, but I believe he is ready and thrives on the challenge.”

Friday defeated Jose Chipres of Washington & Lee, 13-4, to win the 160-pound division and Hayden pinned Christian Kent at 5:04 for the championship among 220-pounders.

“Sam [Friday] won the district title at 160 even though he will wrestle at 152 at the region tournament. He is a returning state qualifier and has a great opportunity to qualify again this year,” said Oren. “Colton [Hayden] wrestled a great finals match against Christian Kent from Northumberland. Colton has a lot of potential to place in the region tournament and qualify for state.”

Lancaster had four district runners-up including Thomas Hyde, Eric Keane, Ronnie Cutler and Danny McGrath.

Cutler lost by tech fall, 18-3, to Oviedo in the championship match in the 113-weight class. Hyde was pinned by Washington & Lee’s Jesse Garcia in the 170 division.

Kevin Clarke of Essex won by injury defeat over Eric Keane of Lancaster in the 182-pound championship match and Raymond Johnson of Washington & Lee pinned McGrath in the heavyweight final.

Lancaster also had five wrestlers finish third including Joey Sanford (120), Jordan Hodges (132), Trey Fisher (138), Beau Nickerson (145) and Christian Johnson (152).

Northumberland had two district championships and five runners-up with Jackson pinning Washington & Lee’s Marcus Clayton in 1:59 in the 138 final and Aaron Curry pinning W&L’s Ryan Brooks in 1:55 in the 132 final.

Kevin Hanks of Northumberland was pinned in the 106 final by Raskey Dejesus of W&L, and Michael Clayton of W&L pinned Northumberland’s Joey Douglas in the 152 final. NHS’s Cody Jackson was the runner-up among 145-pounders after losing to Sam McGill of W&L, 13-4, in the final.

Kent lost to Hayden in the 220 championship.

“I was impressed with the way W&L wrestled at districts. They would have been tough to beat even if we had all of our wrestlers,” said Oren. “Coach Wilkerson has done a nice job with his young team. He has them wrestling well enough to make a run at the region title.”

The Region A championships will be held at Mathews High School this Friday, February 10, and Saturday, February 11.