MOUNDSVILLE — The ‘Road to Huntington’ begins for W.Va. wrestlers in Region One this weekend at two different sites in the Mountain State.

The Class A/AA event, which is held at the Fairmont Fieldhouse, gets started tonight and continues through Saturday, while the Class AAA tournament kicks off Saturday at 9 a.m. inside the Moundsville Fieldhouse.

The top four wrestlers in each of the 14 weight classes will qualify for the 74th annual state tournament at Mountain Health Arena in Huntington. The state tournament will be held four days this year with Class AAA taking the mats on Monday, April 19 and Tuesday, April 20. Class A/AA will conclude the week on Wednesday and Thursday.

Class A/AA

There are 16 teams entered in this division, with eight in each classification. Local teams in the Class A portion include Cameron, Hundred, Madonna, Magnolia, Paden City, Tyler Consolidated and Wheeling Central. The remaining one is St. Marys. Class AA squads include Oak Glen and Weir, locally, along with Berkeley Springs, East Fairmont, Fairmont Senior, Frankfort, Keyser and North Marion.

Of the local teams, there are 10 returning state qualifiers, with four of them reaching the awards podium.

The Dragons’ Ian Bush finished runnerup at 170 pounds while the Golden Bears’ tandem of Kyler O’Connor and Clayton Lamb were third at 182 and sixth at 120, respectively. The Red Riders’ Jordan Brueck was fourth at 285.

Class AAA

Brooke, John Marshall and Wheeling Park are three of the eight teams that comprise Region One. The others are Bridgeport, Buckhannon-Upshur, Morgantown, Preston and University.

The Patriots are the defending champions and return state champion Erick Brothers Jr. who won at 182 last year as a freshman. Seven other Patriots earn medals. They are Quinton Velas (106–5th); Cody Taggart (113–4th); Nate Shelek (120–3rd); Stevie Mitchell (145–2nd); Billy Gooch (152–3rd); Adam Angel (170–6th); and Charlie Tamburin (220-2nd). They also have John Marshall transfer Gabe Carman (132–6th).

Shelek won a state title as a freshman at 106.

The Monarchs’ Ethan Cook (106–6th) and Carl Cochran (113–5th) are returning placers