Pioneers win district wrestling tourney

February 6, 2012
By Robert Niedzwiecki
The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER- The performance wasn't perfect, but it was powerful.

Millbrook recorded a tournament-high five champions - each of whom pinned opponents in their respective finals - to win the Northwestern District Wrestling Tournament for the second straight year and fourth time in five years Saturday at Handley High School.

District regular season champion Millbrook finished with 11 total pins - five more than any other team - and 11 Region II Tournament qualifiers in rolling up 182 points, 36.5 more than second-place Sherando (146.5, two champions, 12 qualifiers).

Skyline was third (137, three, 10, James Wood was fourth (124.5, three, seven) and Handley was fifth (107.5, one, eight). "Overall, it was kind of a bittersweet taste," said senior Joe Jessen (195 pounds), who recorded the fastest pin in the finals (23 seconds). "There was some matches that we definitely should have won, there were definitely some upsets we should have had, we got upset in a weight class we shouldn't have.

"But overall, it's definitely an awesome feeling to get [the title] done. It's school pride. It's good to accomplish a goal."

Millbrook coach Jake Forestiere was certainly glad his team accomplished its goal for the district, and now he hopes that his wrestlers will follow the path that's been laid out for them over the remainder of the postseason.

"For the most part, everybody seems to have stepped their level up," he said. "We're still in the peaking process. Our guys are a little beaten down right now. That's all part of the process. Hopefully in two weeks they'll be feeling great, wrestling great, and everything will take care of itself out at Salem [in the state tournament]."

Jessen (40-3) was joined on the top of the podium by senior Luke Anderson (132 pounds, 3:18 pin, 30-5 record), freshman Dylan Wisman (138, 3:54, 40-7), sophomore P.K. Jessen (152, 1:21, 33-11) and senior Jake Crawford (160, 1:08, 47-2).

Sherando was led by senior Gabe Mead (33-5), a 4-1 winner over Millbrook's Mike Keeler in the 170-pound final, and sophomore Tyler Hamilton (23-13), a 6-0 winner over Handley's Kendall Webster in the 182 final.

Though Sherando coach Pepper Martin was pleased to have the most individual qualifiers, he thought the Warriors could have come out on top in another category, too.

"Overall, we're disappointed with our showing today," Martin said. "We genuinely felt coming in that we had a chance to win this tournament."

A 2-5 performance in the finals was tough to take. Jacob Guthridge (113 pounds) led with 30 seconds left in his match before losing 4-2 to James Wood junior Taylor Swartz in overtime. Aaron Laboy (145) led heading into the third period of his final but lost 3-1 to Skyline's Joe Bass. And B.J. Askew (285) was tied heading into the third period of his final but lost 6-2 to Handley sophomore Jordan Dowrey.

But Martin said Sherando's performance in the consolation semis and the consolation finals was what doomed the Warriors. Sherando went 3-6 in those matches.

"[We needed] no disappointments, maybe a couple of little surprises, ... and maybe a little bit of help from some other teams in our district in order to dethrone Millbrook," Martin said. "It didn't happen."

Another thing that didn't happen was an apparent takedown a little more than 20 seconds into Laboy's finals match with Skyline's Joe Bass.

The referee seemed to say "two" for a takedown as Laboy lunged on top of Bass near the edge of the mat before blowing his whistle, and the scoreboard operator put two on the board. But Skyline coach Matt Keel protested, and it was taken off.

"We felt that they [both] had both knees in [and Laboy had control], and we thought it should have been a takedown," Martin said.

After the points were taken off, Martin said the ref claimed he didn't award the takedown, and if he did say "two," he didn't mean to say it.

The bottom line was that was the closest Laboy got to a takedown. With the score tied 1-1 and regulation drawing to a close, Bass was able to slide around Laboy's back and bring him down with nine seconds left, and Bass let out a yell after the hard-fought win.

Guthridge was even closer to winning in his 113-pound final with Swartz. Swartz defeated Guthridge in last year's 103-pound final and this year's Willie Walters final, but a Guthridge reversal put him up 2-0.

"I just lost my position, and he just caught me," Swartz said.

But Swartz (26-8) quickly scrambled and got a reversal of his own 12 seconds later to even it. In overtime, Swartz hooked his arms under Guthridge's and dropped on top of him with 20 seconds left for a takedown that gave him the win.

James Wood coach Greg Walker said Swartz has a bit of a virus at the moment, but overall Swartz - a regional champion last year - has every reason to feel good about himself.

"It was a rough start [to the season], but once I got going and my technique down, I did good," Swartz said.

Other James Wood champions were freshman Jimmy Woznak (30-6), a 4-0 winner over Skyline's Noah Goss in the 106-pound final, and senior Mark Bean (27-1), a winner by pin in 2:40 over Millbrook's DeAndre Johnson.

James Wood wrestlers exploded off the bleachers in excitement after Bean earned the pin following a scoreless first period. Bean - who started the second period on the top position and got the fall 20 seconds after turning Johnson - didn't wrestle Johnson during the year, and he edged him 4-3 in last year's 215 pound final.

"I knew it was going to be tough," Bean said. "That first period, he was really throwing me around. I ended up coming out that second period and moving him around."

Bean's match capped a wild two days for James Wood. Two of the Colonels' wrestlers had to go to the hospital Friday with practice injuries, and of the two, only Chris Ewing (nose) at 160 pounds was able to qualify for Region II. Two other wrestlers couldn't compete because of concussions.

"For all the turmoil we had in two days, our kids came through," Walker said. "But we had a couple letdowns and we didn't finish where we want to as a team. It's like I told them the other day. We can't rely on the same people week in and week out to score all our points. The last couple of weeks they stepped up and did well, but today we relied on the same people.

"Hopefully this week we can get them fine-tuned, and next week they'll be wrestling smart and scoring points for us."

In the 285-pound final, Askew was up 2-0 after a reversal as the second-period clock wound down. But Dowrey (34-5) was able to turn Askew after grabbing his leg to tie it, then used an escape 18 seconds into the third to go ahead 3-2 and carry himself to victory.

"He scored when he had to," Handley coach David Scott said. "You don't want to ever finish a period out without giving a flurry at the end, and Jordan knows when has to go."

Scott was also pleased to see Anthony Andriola (132), Webster (182) and Josh Wagner (195) each make finals.

"Those are kids at the beginning of the year, I didn't think they'd be in that situation, and it's fun to see them have success," he said. "I think they surprised themselves and the coaching staff."

The top three wrestlers in weight classes 106-120 and 170-285 and the top four in 126-160 advance to next Friday and Saturday's Region II Tournament at Kettle Run High School.

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