The Nansemond River High School wrestling team placed second at the regional wrestling championship.

The Warriors wrestling team was a few points away from taking home a regional championship over the weekend. Nansemond River placed second behind Princess Anne High School by a total of four points.

Though the Warriors had a chance to win and were likely favored to do so, Coach Tripp Seed was proud of the way his team competed.

“Overall, I felt like we competed well as a team,” Seed said. “We fell short in a couple of weight classes and lost a couple of tight matches, but that’s why you wrestle the matches. Sometimes it might not go your way.”

Nansemond River did have three regional champions. Braxton Lewis, Aaron Whear and Matt Henson all took home regional championships in their respective weight classes. Evan Rawls, Omar Mattox and Zech Gray all finished as region runner-ups.

The Warriors also had three fourth-place finishers. Overall, they will send nine wrestlers to the Class 5 state tournament, the most in the school’s history.

Seed believes the team will use its regional finish as motivation for the state tournament. The goal is to bring home a state championship.

“This week is a new week, and we can use last week as motivation to win our tight matches,” Seed said. “These guys have been working hard all year long, and they have worked for the opportunity to compete in the state tournament.”

With nine representatives, the Warriors have a strong chance to come home from states with a couple of individual state champions. Seed feels like the Warriors have a couple of favorable matchups in the state tournament that could lead to possible championships. At the end of the day, anything can happen, and the Warriors know regardless of the opponent, you can’t win anything without actually executing the wins.

“If we wrestle well, we can see good things happening for us,” Seed said. “But we have to wrestle well. It depends on how the draw goes and other things. But it’s possible we can come back with a couple of champions.”

The Class 5 State Tournament will be held Feb. 15 at Rock Ridge High School in Ashburn.