With yet another winter storm bearing down on the Richmond area, there’s no telling whether the Central Region’s four districts will be able to hold their wrestling championships this weekend as scheduled.

Regardless, there promises to be plenty of compelling competition whenever the roads are finally clear enough to allow for safe travel.

That’s especially true in the Capital District, where defending champion Hanover will send its deep, talented lineup onto the mat against quality opponents from host Lee-Davis, Henrico, Varina and Atlee.

Five Hawks—Kevin Keck (119), Connor Harrison (125), Gabe LaVey (135), Patrik Foxworth (140) and Kyle Locke (189) — could face wrestlers who ended the regular season in the Times- Dispatch’s top-four area rankings.

The Capital also could feature a matchup of the area’s top two 112-pounders, Henrico’s Charlie Lipford and Varina’s Shawn Crawley.

Cosby will be the site of what looks like a highly competitive Dominion District tournament. Three teams — James River, Cosby and L.C. Bird — were unbeaten against district competition until the Rapids beat the Skyhawks and Titans in the season’s final tri-meet.

As Cosby coach Mike Stefanko noted recently, the Dominion’s regular-season champion hasn’t always experienced the same amount of success in a tournament format.

“The rest of us aren’t going to just mail it in,” he said. “If your team wins the dual title, you become a marked man and you’re going to get the best effort from every opponent.”

Barring a series of upsets, the Central District should be a two-team race between Matoaca and Hopewell. With standouts Blake Roulo, Josh Clark, Cody Allala and Clint Allala, the Warriors and Blue Devils boast more than 25 percent of the area’s top ranked wrestlers. The team title could come down to which team gets more help from other parts of its lineup.

Also worth watching at Prince George will be a battle among a trio of talented little guys. Dinwiddie’s Joey Plutro, Colonial Heights’ Zack Firesheets and Matoaca’s Michael Peters are all ranked in the area, and at least one of the three will be left out of the 103-pound final.

Of course, Deep Run’s Kasey Early (the area’s top ranked 103-pounder) will have something to say about that. With Early, defending Group AAA state runner-up Peyton Walsh and two other ranked wrestlers (Adam Stein and Adam Atwell) in their lineup, the host Wildcats are the favorite in the Colonial District.

Jim McConnell is a special correspondent for the Richmond Times Dispatch.