Lady Raider Rumble at Liberty on Saturday

Jan. 12—Liberty has some talented girls on its wrestling team. They just need a chance to really show it.

They will get that chance Saturday, and in their home gym.

The inaugural Lady Raider Rumble will get started at noon in Glen Daniel. The name is a nod to the Raider Rumble that Liberty began hosting in 2015.

But it's more significant for giving local girl wrestlers another shot at their own tournament. Shady Spring hosted its first All Girls Scuffle the first weekend of the season and the Tigers and Raiders finished first and second.

Second-year Liberty coach Cole Blankenship at that time gave Shady credit for leading the area charge to increase participation in and awareness of girls wrestling. He now wants his program to do its part.

He said 35-40 girls will wrestle in 12 weight classes on Saturday, which leaves the format to be determined by weight class rather than the tournament as a whole.

"It's sort of tough, being that there's not that many wrestlers," Blankenship said. "We're just trying to grow the sport and I feel like I'm sort of doing my part to grow the sport.

"If there's two in a weight class, maybe best two out of three. If there's three in a weight class, maybe do a round robin or something like that. We'll wrestle everyone in their weight class and then start to branch out and do some exhibitions to just try to get as much mat time as possible."

Shady and Liberty will have the numbers advantage. The Tigers have a girls roster of 10, while the Raiders will send seven to the mats.

"The numbers are steadily growing every year, which is awesome," Blankenship said.

Shady has a little more tournament experience, adding a fifth-place finish at the RJR Girls Invitational in Winston-Salem, N.C., the last week of December. Brooklynn McClure was 3-0 and won the championship at 107 pounds.

Placing second were Abigail Hamilton (145) and Danielle Simmons (185), and Tayla Grove was third at 152.

Among the girls leading the way for Liberty have been Karlie Osborne, who was first at 138 at the All Girls Scuffle, Maddy Lucas (second at 185), Rylie Belcher (second at 138) and Kassidi Richardson (champion at 145).

"My girls are doing awesome this year, to tell you the truth," Blankenship said. "Karlie Osborne has wrestled great. Riley Belcher has also been wrestling great.

Beyond the All Girls Scuffle, the Raiders have mostly had to test themselves against boys. While girls certainly have beaten boys before, Blankenship feels it's usually a mismatch, which creates the need for girls wrestling to be sanctioned and makes Saturday's chance to take the stage important.

"It sucks because a lot of these tournaments they end up wrestling guys and they end up not doing well just because there's so much strength difference," Blankenship said. "But when you can get them on the mat with other girls — I don't know that Karlie's lost to a girl all year. Rylie may have only lost once or twice.

"It's sort of hard to measure yourself against a girl wrestling a guy, because it's just not realistic. Especially in high school. In pee-wee, before guys have gotten strong, it's not that bad. But once you reach high school the strength difference is just too much. So it's great for them to wrestler other girls just to sort of see where they stand."

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Most teams in West Virginia will transition from duals to bracket tournaments this weekend.

Greenbrier West is among those that will be at the Braxton County Invitational that starts Friday. The Class A runner-up Cavaliers have had a strong season that includes a championship at Nicholas County's Mark Fleming Invitational and third place at the inaugural Fallen Heroes Tournament.

Last week they went 6-2 at the West Virginia Army National Guard Duals, losing only to Kentucky power Johnson Central and to Class AAA Hurricane on criteria. Evan Vandall was named the Cavaliers' Most Outstanding Wrestler after continuing a big year thus far.

Meanwhile, Greenbrier East, Independence, Oak Hill and Woodrow Wilson will all be in Fairmont for the Winner's Choice Tournament. Woodrow finished second at last year's tournament and Independence was sixth.

"That's a big mental difference in preparing," Woodrow coach Matt Osborne said of the switch to bracketed tournaments. "When you line up and see your team wrestle, it's easy to get prepared when you're the next one up. You get to see the match and you're prepared.

"These brackets, you're not right behind your teammate. So you've got to mentally get ready and get yourself warmed up before each match. It's different. So this is geared more toward what the state tournament's going to be like in getting individually prepared."

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