The month of December has been a busy one for the New Martinsville Middle School wrestling team. After opening with a fine performance at the Beallsville tournament Dec. 3, the Blue Eagle team hosted the Tyler Consolidated Silver Knights and the Clay Battelle C-Bs on Dec. 6. The home team defeated both teams with scores of 54 to 18 and 42 to 12, respectively.

The team then traveled to Cameron on Dec. 10 and came away with three champions: Riley Nice in the 84 pound class, Doug Riter in the 90 pound class, and Caleb Nice in the 145 pound class. Also placing were Clay Adams (4th), Paden McConaughey (3rd), and Mikey Dantrassy (2nd). The team finished a solid fifth out of 11 teams.

It was on to Buckhannon Upshur for the Eagles, where they participated in another invitational. Winning a championship in the grueling tournament was Paden McConaughey in the 135 pound class. Going down for his first loss of the season, seventh grader Riley Nice took home the runner-up trophy at 84 pounds.

The other grappler to score was Mikey Dantrassy, who came away with a third-place award at 171 pounds. Also scoring but not placing was 145-pound Caleb Nice who won four out of five matches, but was shut out of placing by the bizarre format of the tournament.

The Eagle grapplers earned some well-deserved rest for the Christmas break and look for their next competitions-Jan. 7 and the giant home dual tournament at New Martinsville School on Jan. 14.