Conference 21 Duals

Posted: February 2, 2015
By JOSH DORSEY
Special to The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — The Sherando Warriors continued their wrestling dominance of Conference 21 Saturday.

After going 3-0 Friday night in the Conference 21 duals, the Warriors finished out the two-day wrestling event by going 4-0 on Saturday at Casey Gymnasium.

Sherando also finished 7-0 at the Conference 21 duals last year on its way to a Conference 21 tournament championship and 4A North Region 4A championship.

It wasn’t easy for Sherando to finish with a perfect 7-0 mark this year. The pivotal match of the day came against Woodgrove, and Sherando used an outstanding effort from 113-pounder Anthony Damico to pull it out.

Trailing 6-4 late in the third, Damico got a reversal to send his match against Yadel Schnabel into overtime. Twenty-two seconds into the extra session, Damico pinned Schnabel for six crucial points in a match Sherando went on to win 34-33.

“We were losing and we came back to tie it to send it to overtime then pinned the kid in overtime,” Sherando coach Pepper Martin said. “That’s a nine-point swing right there.”

The rest of the day went smoothly for the Warriors. They had wins over James Wood (54-30), Loudoun County (52-21) and Millbrook (54-21).

Individual performance is the most important aspect of the Conference 21 duals. The duals event is held to determine individual seeding for next Saturday’s Conference 21 tournament at Woodgrove.

But Martin said the team’s strong performance bodes well for the future.

“I thought we wrestled really solidly overall as a team,” Martin said. “We came into this realistically hoping to put our better wrestlers in the best position possible seeding-wise and what we got out of it is a team that is starting to gel a little bit, and at no better time than heading into the postseason.”

Sherando’s biggest winner this year, sophomore John Borst (47-2 record) came up big for his team by doing something he hadn’t done yet in his career — defeat Woodgrove’s Jake David.

David had defeated Borst seven times in his young career heading into Saturday’s match, but Borst earned a 6-3 victory this time.

“It took me seven times to finally come back and step up to finally go after him,” Borst said. “I think I’m in his head now and now I realize that I can [beat him].

“That’s a huge plus for me because I know that I’m in the back of his head now and I can just keep coming at him. I just pushed the pace non-stop. I didn’t let go of the gas 100 percent through and that’s what got me the win.”

The victory in the second round of the day for Borst helped him to a 7-0 record and a No. 1 seed at 170 pounds headed into next week’s tournament.

“Jake David had pretty much kept John from winning the Conference 21 title and the region title last year as a freshman,” Martin said. “Today John had a really good plan of attack against him and he beat him.”

It was an overall good day for several local wrestlers who put themselves in a good position to succeed at next week’s tournament. Sherando’s Jeremiah Platts also went 7-0 and locked up at No. 1 seed at 106 pounds despite not joining the team until the second semester.

Three other local wrestlers earned No. 1 seeds with 7-0 records, including two state champions — Millbrook’s Dylan Wisman at 182 pounds, and James Wood’s Aaron Black at 113. The Pioneers’ Ryan Meushaw, a state finalist last year, will be the top seed at 120 pounds.

The Warriors Mike Duffy (6-1) earned a No. 2 seed in the 120-pound weight class, and teammates Curtis Guthridge (6-1, 126), Justin Feighery (6-1, 132), Colton Simmons (6-1, 138), James Platts (6-1, 145) and Ben Avery (6-1, 285) also earned No. 2 seeds. Guthridge also won his 100th career match Saturday.

For James Wood, Jimmy Woznak (6-1, 152) and Corey Lemons (6-1, 106) both earned No. 2 seeds in their respective weight classes, and the Colonels had four wrestlers earn No. 3 seeds.

Millbrook’s Joe Tanner earned a No. 2 seed by going 6-1 at 195 pounds.

Both James Wood and Millbrook got off to a rough start on Friday night at 1-2. Both were able to rebound on Saturday and finish with records of 4-3.

The Colonels were led Saturday by assistant coach Frank Moore because head coach Greg Walker was out with an illness.

Over the two days, James Wood defeated Loudoun County (48-34), Dominion (47-31), Park View (84-0) and Heritage (61-14). The Colonels fell to Millbrook (39-36), Woodgrove (53-21) and Sherando.

“I think we definitely have a couple of individuals that are right in there,” Moore said. “Even the kids that didn’t end up as a one seed have a pretty good shot. As a group we have a lot of young kids who have the potential. Some of them didn’t help themselves out as much as we’d like this weekend with how they are getting seeded.

“There aren’t too many that are too far off seeding-wise that we can’t have a respectable showing and make a run for it. It depends on how hard we are able to practice and focus to prepare for next week.”

Millbrook’s victories came against James Wood, Park View (60-15), Heritage (54-23) and Dominion (48-36). The Pioneers fell to Loudoun County (40-25), Woodgrove (55-12) and Sherando.

“It’s all going to depend on who shows up next week,” said Millbrook coach Jeff Holmes in looking ahead to the Conference 21 tournament. “I like to think that at the end of the year is usually the time of year that we hopefully shine.

“If we are doing things correctly we will peak these next three weeks and hopefully shock some people and make things happen that they didn’t expect.”