Culpeper Cobras wins middle school state championships!

The Culpeper Wrestling Coalition was back at the Boo Williams Sportsplex in Hampton last weekend for the 2011 Virginia Challenge state wrestling tournament, where the middle school team claimed its second consecutive state championship and three grapplers repeated as individual champions. Drew Shurina and Zack Brown both repeated as elementary school state champs, while as a team Culpeper finished second in the elementary division. Shurina claimed a state title at 65 pounds in the third- and fourth-grade bracket after dominating the 60-pound division last year. The third-grader at Pearl Sample was also named the elementary division’s most outstanding wrestler for the second year in a row. Zack, the son of Eastern View High School wrestling coach Eric Brown, won his second elementary title in the third- and fourth-grade bracket at 120 pounds and moved up to the middle school’s fifth- and sixth-grade bracket, where he also won a state title. James Layher, an eighth-grader at Binns, won his first state title at heavyweight in the seventh- and eighth-grade bracket after pinning all of his opponents. Lastly, Yarhoski Aldiva took home his 2nd straight state title taking the 80 lb title. Congratulations to the Cobras!