WINCHESTER — James Wood High School wrestler Hayden Black took advantage of his time off from school last week.
Instead of playing in the snow, Black spent his hours training with a practice dummy, practicing for an hour after waking up, then resting for an hour and a half before practicing again for another two stints throughout the day.
That training came in handy on Saturday, as Black won his 106-pound weight class at the Judges Invitational to lead James Wood to a second-place finish out of 16 teams. The Colonels scored 410.5 points, 54 points behind first-place Martinsburg (West Virginia). Handley finished sixth with 324 points and had one champion in Thomas Thorpe (175 pounds). Clarke County finished in last place with 133.5 points.
Black finished 5-0, going 3-0 in pool play, where he won two matches by technical fall and one by fall (0:28). The sophomore then went 2-0 in the championship bracket, first winning by decision (5-3) in the semifinals and then pinning Fairfax’s Mai Nguyen in 3:28 in the championship bout. Black previously defeated Nguyen by major decision (18-0) at December’s Willie Walters/Jaye Copp tournament.
Black said practicing at home helps him perfect his craft.
“Even if I only have like five moves, if I do them perfectly, it’s just really helpful,” Black said.
Black’s success on Saturday didn’t come as a surprise to James Wood coach Cory Crenshaw.
“Coming from his background and his family, it’s an all-in atmosphere, so [there’s] no time to take days off,” Crenshaw said. “We got to continue to wrestle and get better and maintain the weight and so forth. We’re very fortunate for him to have the family that he has that continues to support him, and himself having that mindset that I need to continue to get better and push for that as we move in toward states.”
Black was unable to compete in last year’s Judges Invitational due to a shoulder injury, adding more fuel to the fire this time around.
“[It feels] pretty good,” Black said of his championship. “It kind of just shows all the work you put into it.”
Jesse Woodson (157) also made the championship match for the Colonels after going 3-0 in pool play. Woodson finished 4-1 for a second-place finish with three pins, losing to Martinsburg’s Andrew Thompson by decision (9-5).
James Wood was also led by Seth Merryman (fourth at 126, 3-2, 2 pins); Hayden Franks (fourth at 138, 3-2); Kaiden Tidwell (sixth place at 113, 3-2, 2 pins); Isaiah Hodel (sixth place at 120, 3-2); Cash Keeler (seventh at 120, 3-2, 3 pins); Austin Noble (ninth at 144, 3-2, 2 pins); Sean Hodel (sixth at 150, 3-2, 2 pins); Aiden Henry (sixth at 165, 3-2, 2 pins); Blake Tidwell (third at 175, 4-1, 3 pins); Isaac Bond (sixth at 190, 3-2, 3 pins); and Orion Cox (third at 215, 4-1, 2 pins).
“Everybody continued to wrestle hard throughout the rest of the day,” Crenshaw said. “[They kept] us in position there as a team together, trying to place as high as you could as the individual. As long as we’re doing that, that’s going to keep the team points up there.”
Thorpe finished 5-0, defeating Kettle Run’s Talan Morse by technical fall (19-6) in the first-place match. The Handley junior was also named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Wrestler for upper weights. Powhatan’s Luke Wells won the award for the light weights.
Thorpe’s championship came just eight months after he got surgery to repair a torn labrum and a fractured shoulder bone in May last year.
“They repaired my labrum — both sides of it — and then they shaved my shoulder bone that had fractured off and moved my rotator cuff to cover for the shoulder bone that was missing,” Thorpe said.
Thorpe was in a sling for the first six weeks after surgery. He then had to go through physical therapy for five and a half months.
That long road to being cleared to wrestle on Dec. 1 came with hurdles.
“It kind of messed up my mindset,” Thorpe said. “That whole offseason, I spent like six months not really being able to do anything. I really wanted to work and just get better, so it really dropped my confidence down. I knew I was good enough where I could compete with anybody, but it was just kind of a mental block where I knew that I hadn’t really worked in a while. It’s definitely been a big mountain I’ve had to face.”
Thorpe added that he wasn’t able to practice on Thursday or Friday leading up to Saturday’s invitational due to his shoulder, which still affects him even after surgery.
“It feels good to be able to come out on top today and wrestle to my ability,” Thorpe said.
Handley coach Troy Mezzatesta was pleased to see Thorpe stand on top of the podium after recovering from an injury that he said can take a full year to recover from.
“This is your home turf that you’re defending,” Mezzatesta said. “So for [Thorpe], I think it’s a big deal. He’s had some tough matches, too. He’s won some finals this year, and he’s kind of had some last-minute [moments of] letting one fall and slip. So to win another one always just helps you build that confidence.”
Alex Sardelis (113 pounds) finished 4-1 and also competed in the first-place match, where he fell to Fairfax’s Johann Jose by decision (12-6). Jace Culotta finished second at 126 pounds, with his only loss coming against Brentsville’s Leland Cline in the first-place match.
Handley was also led by Hayden Thompson (third at 144, 4-1); Carson Otto (fourth at 150, 3-2, 3 pins); and Owen Jett (seventh at 215, 3-2).
Handley was without James Battulga, who has been the Judges’ top competitor at 157 pounds. Mezzatesta said Battulga didn’t compete because the Judges “want to make sure he’s ready to go at the end of the season.”
“The tournament went amazing,” Mezzatesta added. “I think our guys did wrestle really hard. We got some things to clean up, and we got to get healthy moving forward. We’re going to be better moving forward.”
Clarke County’s Kolton Vincent made it to the championship match in the 120-pound weight class but came up short. Vincent had firm control of the match over Fairfax’s Akram Guliyev, holding an 8-2 lead with 30 seconds left in the third round. Before the clock ran out, Guliyev was able to tie the match with a reversal and a four-point near fall. He then won in overtime with a takedown.
Although Vincent didn’t finish atop the podium, Clarke County coach Logan Withers was impressed with how Vincent wrestled throughout the day.
“Kolton, being a senior, did his job today,” Withers said. “He wrestled fantastically. It was an unfortunate turn of events for Kolton at the end there. Did we all have different expectations? I’m sure Colton did, as well. He wrestled extremely hard. He gave it everything he had, and it didn’t go our way.”
Other Clarke leaders included Matthew Mayr (fifth at 132 pounds, 4-1, 3 pins) and Camden McCarty (seventh at 165, 3-2).
“I thought we did very, very well from where we have started as a team,” Withers said. “We’re a very young team, and I think they get better every single week. So I was very happy overall with how my boys did today.”
— Contact Justin Robertson at jrobertson@winchesterstar.com
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