Taylor Waddy (third from left) and Langley Amiss (far left) comprised one third of the winners in the 185-pound division at the 2023 Virginia High School League Girls State Open Wrestling Championships last weekend at Unity Reed High School in Manassas. Waddy finished second, while Amiss was sixth. On the strength of their two finishes, the Lions finished tied for second as a team.
Taylor Waddy (third from left) and Langley Amiss (far left) comprised one third of the winners in the 185-pound division at the 2023 Virginia High School League Girls State Open Wrestling Championships last weekend at Unity Reed High School in Manassas. Waddy finished second, while Amiss was sixth. On the strength of their two finishes, the Lions finished tied for second as a team.
With nearly 120 schools participating, Louisa County High School tied for second in the 2023 Virginia High School League Girls State Open Wrestling Championships last weekend at Unity Reed High School in Manassas.
The Lions sent six wrestlers to the state open with two placing to provide Louisa with 15 team points to tie Spotsylvania. Nearby Orange County (16) and Thomas Dale High School (16) tied for first.
The Lions were led by sophomore Taylor Waddy (185) who finished as the state runner-up. Waddy opened her state tournament run by pinning Spotsy’s Monica Lemus, and then faced a familiar opponent in the second round—teammate Langley Amiss. Waddy proceeded to pin Amiss in the quarterfinals before facing Janae Sanders (Spotsylvania) in the semifinals. Waddy again pinned her Spotsy opponent, setting up a title match with Thomas Dale’s Elise Davis—who had only lost one match all season. Ultimately, the Thomas Dale junior prevailed, pinning Waddy to claim the state title, with the Louisa 10th-grader finishing in second.
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Meanwhile, in the division’s consolation bracket, Amiss won by forfeit over MLWGs’s Allison Quintanilla and again by forfeit over Goochland’s Kendra Martinez. Facing Dinwiddie’s Amanda Walker, Amiss lost a tight match 3-1, putting her in the fifth-place match against Spotsy’s Sanders. The Knight pinned the Lion sending Amiss to a sixth-place finish.
In a big bracket, Louisa’s Kailyn Myers (100) lost her first match to Wose’s Sarina Gunn, dropping her into the consolation bracket. There, she pinned Martinsville’s Skyylar Miller and won a 16-4 major decision over Stafford’s McNulty before falling to Glen’s Evelyn McDowell and ending her tournament.
In the 106 bracket, Marion Zimmerman pinned Winchester’s Alyssa Walters in her opening match before falling to Charlize Shuler (Grassfield) in the second round. In the consolation bracket, she lost her opening match to Neve Kelly (Woodbridge Senior), ending her tournament.
A’mya Barbour won a 6-4 decision over Mikayla Turner (Meridian) but fell to North Stafford’s Rihana Carson in her second match. She promptly won her first match in the consolation bracket, pinning Carly Shivley (Bassett) before falling to Winchester’s Jessica Butler.
Kaylee Hustead (156) opened with a loss to Radford’s Margaret Page and then fell to Harrisonburg’s Yar Al Sindi in her only match in the consolation bracket.
Fewer than a dozen of the 118 teams represented at last weekends’s state championship recorded team points.
