The Bishop O'Connell Knights placed second at the Virginia Independent Schools State Championship this past weekend at Virginia Episcopal School in Lynchburg.

Senior Steve Ratley finished first at 171 pounds. He improved to 40-1 on the season and participated in the prep schools national this weekend at Lehigh University, where he placed third.

Senior Eddie Lynch (heavyweight) and junior Kris Park (145) also captured the gold medal. The two improved to 35-8 and to 37-7 respectively.

Senior Norman Anderson (130) placed second overall and improved to 30-9. Three Knights placed third: senior Warren Negri (215) improved to 31-10, junior Mike Laird (189) improved to 35-7 and freshman Drew Carpenter (103) improved to 36-9. Junior Kyle Hastings (152) placed fifth and improved to 25-13.

One week earlier, the Knights placed fifth at the prestigious St. Alban’s Invitational.

Ratley placed first; Park placed second; Laird placed third; Anderson placed fourth; Carpenter placed fifth; junior Shane Hayre (160) placed sixth (and his season record stands at 28-13); and Negri placed seventh.

"I've been pleased with how we have wrestled in all of the tournaments this season," said Carpenter. "We haven't beaten ourselves and we have wrestled up to our potential. It's been a fun year. We've got a good balance of older and younger wrestlers. The senior leadership on the team has been terrific all season long."

The Bishop Ireton Cardinals, coached by Scott Racek, placed 10th and 13th respectively at the Virginia Independent Schools State Championship and at St. Alban’s.

Senior Jon Horbaly (119) placed second at the former and fourth at the latter. The captain's record now stands at 43-9. Junior Kwinten Brown (125) placed third at the former and sixth at the latter, and improved to 41-10 overall.

Senior Matt Fogarty (160) placed fourth at the former and fifth at the latter, and improved to 27-12 overall. Junior Nick Dight (130) placed fifth at the former and sixth at the latter, and improved to 33-11 overall.

Freshman Cameron Gadway (heavyweight) did not place in the former, but placed eighth in the latter.

"Regarding the Virginia Independent Schools State Championship, I'm pretty pleased overall but in a few different spots we could have done better. Regarding St. Alban’s, we did pretty well considering that we have a young team and considering that we had not wrestled prior to that tournament for two weeks," said Racek.

The Paul VI Panthers, coached by John Welcher, did not participate at the V.I.S. Championships. At St. Alban’s, the Panthers finished in the upper tier.