4A State Wrestling Tournament

Posted: February 24, 2014
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star

SALEM — As the typo in the state finalist program demonstrated, nobody’s perfect.

But the man whose last name was misspelled in that program once again showed he’s the closest thing to perfection as you’re going to find in Virginia high school wrestling.

Though there was a split-second of trepidation in the second period when he got thrown on his back in the second period, Handley senior Jordan Dowrey quickly recovered for a 2-0 win in the Group 4A 285-pound state final Saturday over Smithfield sophomore Ross Manfred at the Salem Civic Center.

And that, to borrow a baseball term, finished off a spectacular no-no for Dowrey — no losses for the season, no points allowed for the season.

It was one heck of a way to wrap up a career — Dowrey (47-0) also went undefeated last year (52-0) in winning a state title at 285 pounds, and his finals win was his 100th straight dating back to his sophomore year — and a heck of a way to wrap up the championship finals for the Northwestern District.

Dowrey’s sophomore teammate Lio Quezada won 8-4 at 120 pounds for a state title, James Wood freshman Aaron Black won 3-1 at 106 for a state title, and Millbrook junior Dylan Wisman got a breakthrough championship at 182 pounds after losing in state finals each of his first two years with a 10-2 win.

Dowrey’s main love is football — he’ll attend Marshall University on a full athletic scholarship to play as an offensive lineman next year. But as he posed for pictures and embraced numerous family members and friends, it was clear there’s always been plenty of space reserved in his heart for wrestling.

“To plan on winning all the matches two years straight [would be] crazy,” said Dowrey, who was listed as “Dewrey” in the bio information for finalists in the program given out before the championship finals. “I’ve had a good season and great coaching all the way through, and that’s really helped me out.

“I’ve been surrounded by a lot of people who have made me better over the years. I owe a lot to my coaches at Willie Walters [Wrestling Club], Daniel Morgan and Handley.”

Dowrey’s and Quezada’s wins were enough to lift the Judges to an impressive seventh place with 50 points, but even that was only good enough for third in the Northwestern District.

Hanover claimed the title with 96 points, and Fauquier was second with 90.5. Sherando — which had hopes of winning the state title after claiming the North Region championship Monday — tied with Millbrook for fifth with 53 points. James Wood was 16th with 28 points.

Though Dowrey once again kept his opponent off the scoreboard, it took everything he had to make that so.

After a scoreless first period, Dowrey was in the bottom position for the second period against Manfred (40-6). Dowrey said in that situation, he’s not looking for an escape — he wants the reversal.

But about 50 seconds into the period Handley coach David Scott felt Dowrey got too aggressive in trying to “jump over [Manfred’s] body,” and Manfred tossed Dowrey to his back and tried to move in for a head cradle. An audible “Oh my God” could be heard at that point from the direction where Dowrey’s older brother Derek [a Penn State football player] was standing behind the gates by the mats.

But Manfred never got close to controlling Dowrey, as Dowrey righted himself faster than a blink of an eye. The match was stopped a few seconds later as the duo went off the mat.

In the restart, Dowrey hit a switch while moving to his right and got around Smith’s back for a reversal and the only two points he needed. Dowrey — who hasn’t been taken down at all in the last two years — then put the finishing touches on his career with a strong third period to win, allowing Derek and the rest of the family to smile from ear-to-ear.

Dowrey — who won his semifinal match 1-0 — said he had definitely had to dig deep in Salem, because none of his previous matches had gone the full six minutes.

“Conditioning was definitely affecting me at the end,” Dowrey said. “I wasn’t in six-minute match shape like I wanted to be. He’s a good wrestler. To go three periods with him, that was a rough match.”

With the win, Dowrey became Handley’s first two-time state champion, and he also gave Handley two state champions in the same year for the first time ever. Dowrey was just as happy for Quezada as he was for his own accomplishment.

After one period, Quezada (49-6) was by no means a lock to make that happen in the 120-pound final. He trailed 4-0 to King George freshman Kolin Johnson (49-4), a wrestler he beat 2-0 in the North Region final.

Quezada reminded himself of how hard he had worked to get to this point — he didn’t qualify for states as a freshman — and reminded himself he had plenty of time.

But Quezada got a takedown in the second period, then got a takedown and two-point near fall for a 6-4 lead 20 seconds into the third period that he would not relinquish.

It wasn’t easy holding onto that lead — particularly because Johnson wasn’t letting go of the broken finger that Quezada suffered in the first round of the regional tournament Sunday.

“[Johnson] kept clawing at it, because he knew it was broken,” Quezada said. “So I just thinking, ‘Keep him down, keep him down, keep him down. The pain [in the finger] is mental. I just didn’t think about it.

“I’m just so happy. Everything I worked for, I’ve just got to keep it up. Now I want to compete well at the national level, and be a three-time state champion.”

Scott said Quezada’s finals win is a credit to both his mental toughness for coming back and his physical toughness for holding on.

“He’s in better shape than almost everybody he wrestles,” Scott said. “He puts the time in. 120 was deep. It was a good weight class top to bottom, and he beat a lot of good kids.”

Handley also had senior Coby Pitcock (38-13) place fifth at 182 pounds and sophomore Dolan Delaney (34-25) place eighth at 152.

Wisman (49-2) — who placed second at 138 as a freshman and second at 160 as a sophomore — didn’t add to his total of 40 pins in the final, but he continued his penchant for piling up points in the matches he doesn’t win by fall.

Wisman needed just 14 seconds to get his first takedown against Hanover’s TJ Allen (16-1), and he led 5-0 after one period and 8-1 after two.

“I just knew that I had to work on my stuff, and not let him control the match,” Wisman said. “He’s a little bigger, so I knew he was going to go for more upper-body stuff. I tied him up a little, but I didn’t want to stay in there too long. I just used fast movement and kept moving.”

Wisman never let up, and that attitude helped fuel his dominance this year.

“Losing the state finals the first two years was just fuel in the fire,” Wisman said. “It just pushed me every day, not just for state titles, but also for national tournaments and for wrestling in college. I just want to be the best I could be.

“[To win], it’s definitely a relief off my back and burden off my shoulders.”

Millbrook coach Jeff Holmes said he was proud of Wisman, and he finished off his season impressively.

“He had a great tournament,” Holmes said. “[Allen] was strong, and he wrestled him the way he needed to wrestle him, and he pretty much dominated the match.”

Fellow Pioneers junior Ryan Meushaw (39-10) was unable to join Wisman as a state champion, losing 5-2 to Fauquier’s Daniel Ariola (41-3) in the 113 final. Ariola beat Meushaw 6-1 in the North Region final Monday.

Trailing 2-0, Meushaw tied the match with a third-period takedown, and during the next restart the Pioneers elected to concede an escape to put Ariola up 3-2.

Meushaw came close and forced Ariola to the ground, but Ariola held Meushaw’s leg and eventually shifted to his back for a takedown with 25 seconds left to make it 5-2.

Holmes said they gave up the escape because they felt putting Meushaw on his feet was his best chance to win, especially since Ariola had reversed Meushaw only 18 seconds into the second period for the first points of the match.

“When Ryan gets that single leg, he scores almost 99 percent of the time,” Holmes said. “I knew if he got to the leg, he was going to score points. He had such a good takedown, we were hoping he could get it again, and it almost happened.

“I’m really proud of Ryan. He wrestled really hard, and he showed a lot of determination. He represented himself and the program with honor, dignity and respect.”

Millbrook senior Devon Sharp (36-18) took fourth at 170 pounds.

Before James Wood’s Black (49-1) could pick up a win, he had to endure a loss — of a tooth. While riding Hanover’s Gray Hart (26-9) in the second period, it came out with about 50 seconds left.

“It distracted me at first, but I couldn’t think about it,“ Black said, “I had that bar with about a minute to go, and there was no way I was stopping it.”

Black was unable to push Gray onto his head by the end of the second period to leave his match scoreless, but he got an escape 26 seconds into the third to go up 1-0, then added a takedown with 23 seconds left to go up 3-0.

“[For the escape], I hit a switch, turned back in, and I got out,” Black said. “Then when he shot in at the end I snuck around.

“It means a lot to win. When I won, it didn’t feel real. I felt like I was in a dream.”

James Wood assistant coach Mark Weir said Black does what most can only dream of because of his commitment. (Colonels head coach Greg Walker was not allowed to coach in the state tournament because he was ejected from the North Region tournament Feb. 16 after a dispute with a referee during one of Jimmy Woznak’s matches. An ejection means you also have to miss the following tournament, though Walker did watch from the stands.)

“He’s a hard-working kid and a great kid,” Weir said. “He doesn’t let anything distract him. He stays on an even keel.”

James Wood senior Daniel Funkhouser (39-11) placed sixth at 182 pounds.

Sherando was the only local school not to win a state title. Senior P.K. Jessen (45-2) lost by fall in the 170-pound final in 1:13 to Smithfield’s Jordon Garlow (49-5) in what Warriors coach Pepper Martin (451 career wins) called “one of the quickest pins called that I’ve witnessed in my coaching career.” Jessen had scored the match’s opening points with a takedown.

“[Garlow] shot in, we got what looked to be a front headlock to block him, and he dumped us and settled back,” Martin said. “Sure it was going to be a takedown and back points, but [the pin call was quick].”

Martin said it was difficult to see Jessen finish that way, especially given how hard he had worked to recover from the torn labrum he suffered last year.

“We’re really proud of how he handled himself with such a crushing defeat,” he said.

Sherando had hoped to be celebrating more than just an individual title, but with just six wrestlers, the Warriors couldn’t take advantage of their depth like they did at the regional tournament, when 10 of their 13 wrestlers placed in the top six. Sherando also missed the services of 182-pound state qualifier Killian McPartland, who couldn’t wrestle because he was injured in a car accident Wednesday. And Martin said Sherando probably would have needed multiple champions to go with a strong all-around effort to contend.

“Some of the teams down here were stronger than we expected from the South, and they had better quality,” Martin said. “A bunch of teams basically brought the same number of wrestlers [as us], and it’s at this level that you’ve got to get those guys to the finals.”

Senior Tyler Hamilton (32-3) placed third at 220 pounds, senior Jacob Guthridge (44-6) placed fifth at 132, freshman John Borst (37-13) placed fifth at 152, sophomore Mike Duffy (33-16) placed seventh at 106, and sophomore Ben Avery (21-10) placed eighth at 285.

Martin praised Hamilton for bouncing pass from his semifinal loss and coming back to take third, which he did with a 9-6 win over Courtland’s Joe Tyson to avenge his North Region final loss. And while Guthridge struggled to bounce back after losing in the semifinals and suffered an overtime consolation semifinals loss, Martin gave him credit for winning the final match of an outstanding career that included second- and fourth-place finishes at states.

“Tyler had a really nice tournament,” Martin said. “He didn’t fold his tent [after losing].

“Jacob will go down as one of the best wrestlers to wrestle for us [all-time]. You can see his growth and development through those four years, and the dedication and self-sacrifice he put into the sport.”

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