ALDIE — A few hours before they were scheduled to meet in the 285-pound Region II wrestling final, Handley junior Jordan Dowrey and James Wood senior Erik Bearer were sitting next to each other in the bleachers and talking as they took in the action Saturday at John Champe High School.
If the two All-Northwestern District linemen were getting ready for a football game, they likely wouldn’t have come together to stretch and talk on the field.
But such is the beauty of wrestling — there’s plenty of available downtime to relax before you get down to that same aggressive mentality you need to play on the line in football.
“We’re really good friends off the mat, but we both have a switch that when we step on the mat, we’re not friends, we’re enemies,” Bearer said. “We wanna compete, compete, compete, and see who the winner is.”
In yet another hard-fought battle Saturday, that winner was Dowrey. Dowrey earned a 5-1 victory in the final to claim the first regional title of his career and improve his record this season to 48-0, and in the process, he dropped Bearer to 32-7. Bearer has suffered five of his losses to Dowrey.
Dowrey was one of three local wrestlers who claimed titles Saturday at the Region II Wrestling Championships, with Sherando junior Jacob Guthridge (120 pounds) and Millbrook sophomore Dylan Wisman (160) each earning their second straight Region II title.
As for the Region II team title, that went to Fauquier for the fourth straight year. The Falcons (147.5 points) edged Loudoun County and Skyline, who each tied for second with 144.5 points.
Sherando (five state qualifiers) placed fifth with 125 points, Millbrook (three) was 10th with 92, Handley (one) was 11th with 81.5, and James Wood (two) was 15th with 50.
The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to the Group AA state tournament at the Salem Civic Center Friday and Saturday.
As usual, points were hard to come in Dowrey’s and Bearer’s match, and Dowrey scored an impressive takedown late in the first period to give him the edge he needed.
With Bearer on the edge of the mat, Dowrey was able to grab one of Bearer’s legs and hold it a few inches off the ground while keeping Bearer in the circle, and after several seconds he was able to pull that leg up more and shift Bearer into a position that allowed Dowrey to bring Bearer down with control while barely keeping his feet inside the circle.
“He created an angle real well with his underhook, and if he does that he usually ends up getting a takedown,” Handley coach David Scott said. “It’s just getting to that point, because he’s so good keeping good position. If he can get his underhook and get to an angle, he can push and score on him.”
After that, the duo only managed to trade escapes until the final seconds of the third period. Dowrey got a takedown after slipping Bearer’s arm off the back of his neck when Bearer made a last-ditch takedown attempt.
Though Dowrey’s been unbeatable all year, Saturday’s victory was definitely a special one. Dowrey — who lost 4-2 in double overtime in last year’s 285 Region II title — didn’t have to win a regional title to win a state title, but mentally, it definitely helps.
“This is the first step to being one of the top dogs, and that’s what I’ve wanted to do since my freshman year,” Dowrey said. “But next week I’m back to ground zero again. Whatever I’ve done up to this point doesn’t mean a thing next week. We’ll see what happens.”
One thing that will likely happen next week is that Dowrey will be rooting for Bearer every step of the way — unless of course they meet in the state final.
“He’s a friend of mine,” Dowrey said. “Every tournament we’re at, we hang out. He’s a great guy, a great wrestler, and I’m glad to see him doing well, especially since this is only his second year [wrestling]. He’s come a long way.”
Recognition of progress is a sentiment that Sherando coach Pepper Martin also expressed in regard to his team.
In addition to Guthridge (38-4) — a 6-4 winner over Fluvanna County’s Justin Zimmerman in the 120 final — Sherando will also send junior Kyle Vangel (second at 138 pounds, 36-7), sophomore Colton Simmons (third at 132, 30-15), senior Dan Mullaney (third at 160, 30-6), and junior Tyler Hamilton (fourth at 195, 33-10) to the state tournament. Vangel lost his final to Loudoun County’s Logan Smith by fall in 1:10.
“As a team, we couldn’t really have done any better,” Martin said. “I’m so proud of the whole coaching staff and our kids.
“They’ve come a long way in the past three weeks. Some of these younger kids in particular have grown up a little bit. They’ve developed a little more mental toughness, things are starting to click for them in terms of things we practice in the practice room. I thought that we wrestled as well as we possibly could this weekend. I thought we had a shot for fifth as a team, but more realistically, [only] in the top eight. To qualify five for the state tournament, that says a lot about how far those guys have come.”
In particular, Martin gave credit to Simmons because his postseason wrestling has been the best of his season; Vangel, because he was ill most of Saturday but was able to gut it out and advance to and compete in the finals; and Mullaney, because he achieved the most physically demanding feat in wresting, which is taking third after losing in the first round. Wrestlers have to go 5-0 over the remainder of the tournament to achieve such a feat.
Martin noted that Guthridge didn’t wrestle his best in the final,. but he also noted that Guthridge displayed his trademark calm and resolve to win.
Guthridge trailed 4-1 to Zimmerman late in the first period as a result of two takedowns, but a Guthridge escape, then a takedown with 23 seconds left in the first period, tied the match at 4-4.
After that, Guthridge simply wore down Zimmerman. With Guthridge in the top position, Zimmerman was cautioned for stalling in a scoreless second period, which saw Zimmerman need injury time with 23 seconds left because of his knee.
With Zimmerman on top in the third, Zimmerman was called for stalling again and Guthridge was awarded a point with 1:09 left. Zimmerman then had to let Guthridge go for an escape point, and he never came close to a takedown.
“I was pretty confident he was going to take an injury time, because he had taken one in all his matches, and he started getting winded in the third,” Guthridge said. “I just worked my stuff, kept my focus, and stuck to it until the end and didn’t give up. I pushed hard.”
In addition to Wisman (25-4), Millbrook qualified Mike Keeler (second at 170, 14-5) and Trae Sine (fourth at 113, 22-16) for the state tournament. Keeler forced overtime (3-3 score) in the 170 final, but was pinned 15 seconds into it by Powhatan’s Jake Tomlinson.
Keeler and Sine did well to advance to the state tournament, and Millbrook coach Jeff Holmes was impressed with both in the regional tournament.
Battling a hand injury, Keeler elected to cut Tomlinson loose for an escape point immediately after Keeler’s reverse tied the match at 2 with 49 seconds left in the third, and that nearly worked out after Tomlinson was hit with a stalling call that forced overtime.
And after losing twice this year to Handley’s Lio Quezada — including 6-2 in last week’s district final — Sine beat him 8-5 in the consolation semifinals to earn a spot in the state tournament.
As for Wisman, he appears to be getting even stronger. Wisman had trouble scoring in last week’s 6-3 win over Skyline’s Tyler Ritter in the Northwestern District final. But in the rematch in the Region II final, Wisman led 7-0 before Ritter scored a reversal. In the blink of an eye, Wisman who got back on top of Ritter, and 15 seconds after Ritter’s reversal Wisman earned a pin (3:37).
“I’m starting to get back to 100 percent, but I’m definitely not there yet,” Wisman said. “I’ve still got a lot of work to do this week going into the state tournament.”
Scott certainly thought the Judges would take more than Dowrey to the state tournament, but they dropped all four of their consolation semifinal matches.
“I think our youth got exposed at this level of the tournament,” said Scott, who did say a big highlight was having senior Skylar Wotring place sixth at 195 in his his second year of wrestling, not to mention having senior Coby Pitcock place sixth at 182 even though he was undersized for that class. “The kids weren’t ready for the competition. We were hoping to get two, maybe three through, so we’re disappointed.”
In addition to Bearer, James Wood will send sophomore Jimmy Woznak (third at 106) to the state tournament.
— Contact Robert Niedzwiecki at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
