The high school wrestling postseason will begin to unfold at a breakneck pace today with district matches.

The three teams of the Three Rivers District will be the first to wade into peril at 6 tonight at Radford. With partial rosters the norm for Glenvar, Floyd County and the Bobcats, there will be only seven semifinal matches. Finals should start at 7 p.m.

On Thursday, the Pioneer District match takes place at James River; Mountain Empire is at Graham; and Hogoheegee will be at Rural Retreat.

Everything else except the VIC tournament, which is Feb. 11, will be Saturday. The Western Valley grapplers will be is at Franklin County; Blue Ridge is at Northside; River Ridge is at Pulaski County; Seminole is at Brookville; and the Piedmont will be at Martinsville.

In several tournaments, the only real fights are likely to be for second place.

Christiansburg, which has 10 Group AA state titles and counting, is a prohibitive favorite in the River Ridge. Franklin County, coming off a second-place finish at the Big Orange last weekend, will again be the team to beat at Western Valley, especially if 285-pounder Shaun Greer, who missed Big Orange, returns to the lineup.

Brookville, first-time Big Orange champ last week, will be taking aim at a 43rd straight Seminole title. Rural Retreat, which conquered a field that included most of the top teams in Group A Region C last week at its own tournament, is a big favorite again in the Hogoheegee.

Perhaps the most interesting of the district tournaments this week will be the Blue Ridge.

"A lot of balance," said Northside coach Mark Agner, whose Vikings beat each of the other teams in the district in dual matches this season, all by relatively narrow margins.

So what will be the deciding factor in the Blue Ridge?

"It's going to come down to whichever coach can get his best team to the tournament," Agner said.

Demons find a big man

Here's a daunting thought for Christiansburg's opponents: For the first time this year, the Blue Demons will field a full lineup when they go to the district tournament Saturday.

"All year long, I've been looking for a heavyweight," Christiansburg coach Daryl Weber said. "I'm walking around school recently and I see this big kid, and I go, 'Now who's this?'"

Turns out, it was senior Hunter Miller, son of Blue Demons assistant football coach Jeff Miller. The younger Miller had been living with this mother in South Carolina before returning to Christiansburg, where he grew up. He started school second semester.

Miller had some wrestling background. Weber likes what he's seen, assuming Miller can get in shape in time for district.

"He's getting there," Weber said. "We're glad to have somebody who can get in there and scrap. It's better than a forfeit."

Christiansburg warmed up for district last weekend with a 25-40 dual match loss to Colonial Forge, which has been top-ranked in Group AAA all year by Virginia Wrestling.

Winners for Christiansburg included 120-pounder J.R. Wert, 126-pounder Joey Dance, 138-pounder Dallas Smith, 160-pounder Zack Epperly, 170-pounder Tyler Miles and 220-pounder Brandon Taylor.

Christiansburg's Coy Ozias, the top-ranked GroupAA 106-pounder, did not wrestle because he was suffering from the flu. He'll be back this week.

Bring on the regionals

Regional tournaments are next week, starting with the Northwest Region on Feb. 10 at Forest Park. Region III will be Feb. 11 at Turner Ashby. Region IV will be announced. Region C will Feb. 10-11 at Galax.

Christiansburg and Brookville look solid in IV and III, respectively. Ditto for Rural Retreat in C.

The Indians have six state-ranked wrestlers, led by 152-pounder Travis Anderson, No. 1 in the weight class. The others include Ty Boyd (106), T.J. Mitchell (113), Emmanuel Davidson (120), Cory Williams (170) and Derek Yates (182).

The only other Region C wrestler who is No. 1 in the state is Radford's Sean Donnelly, at 120. The rankings came out before last weekend when Donnelly lost 7-2 to Cave Spring's Chase McDaniel in the Big Orange final.