Conference 21 Tourney

Posted: February 9, 2015
By ROBERT NIEDZWIECKI
The Winchester Star

PURCELLVILLE — The Conference 21 wrestling tournament had been over for several minutes, but Sherando head coach Pepper Martin and assistant coach Joel Elmquist were in no hurry to get up from the chairs they were sitting on as they wondered about what could have been.

Defending champion Sherando came up just short Saturday, as the host school Woodgrove scored 201 points to edge the Warriors’ 196.5 in the eight-team tournament.

Despite trailing by 16.5 points heading into the championship finals, a win with at least a major decision (or more realistically, a pin) by junior Ben Avery in the 285-pound final would have given the tournament to the Warriors, who won last week’s Conference 21 duals competition. Avery, the No. 2 seed in that weight class, lost a tightly contested 2-1 decision to top seed Adeeb Atariwa of Dominion to clinch the title for Woodgrove.

But as Martin was quick to point out, the loss by Avery — who has been outstanding all year in compiling a 30-4 record for Sherando — is not what cost the Warriors the tournament.

A Sherando team that expected to get 12 wrestlers through to the 4A North Region tournament — which will take place this coming Friday and Saturday at Amherst County High School — only advanced 10. (The top four in each weight class qualify.)

Five Sherando wrestlers finished with places below where they were seeded. Two wrestlers didn’t score points (one of whom was not projected to score any), and a wrestler seeded third actually cost Sherando a team point as a result of not winning any matches and being docked a penalty point for slamming his headgear down after being pinned in one of his matches.

“Tournaments that are going to be tight like this, you can’t finish lower than your seed,” Martin said. “We wrestled extremely well in certain weight classes, but other weight classes we didn’t wrestle well at all and we left a lot of points on the mat.

“I think we lost it in the consolation semis. I think we should have won six of six matches, and we went four-for-six.”

Still, Sherando headlined a strong performance by Frederick County schools, which won eight individual titles despite having only five No. 1 seeds.

Top seeds Jeremiah Platts (106 pounds) and John Borst (170 pounds) along with No. 2 seed Colton Simmons (138) won titles for Sherando. James Wood (third with 160.5 points, eight region qualifiers) received titles from No. 1 seed Aaron Black (113) and No. 2 seed Jimmy Woznak (152). Millbrook (fifth with 147 points, seven qualifiers) received titles from top seeds Ryan Meushaw (120) and Dylan Wisman (182) as well as No. 2 seed Joe Tanner (195). Black, Woznak, Meushaw and Wisman all won titles at last year’s inaugural Conference 21 tournament.

The Sherando freshman Platts (13-1) started the finals off well for the Warriors with a 9-1 major decision over Dominion’s Gabe Page.

Platts — who pinned Page at the Conference 21 duals — nearly did it early in the third period after putting Page on his back en route to pushing his lead from 4-1 to 9-1 34 seconds into the period. Page was able to reposition himself and avoid it, but could do nothing else against Platts.

“I had the same approach as last week,” Platts said. “The big thing was staying calm, because I get really worked up before matches. But we’ve got a really good coaching staff that helped me through that.”

At this point, Platts would probably be willing to run through a wall for the Warriors’ coaches. Platts’ wasn’t eligible for the first half of the season, so he’s savoring every moment on the mat.

“It means a lot [to have success],” Platts said. “Coming into this season I didn’t think I was going to have a chance to wrestle, and getting that call from Coach Martin saying I was back on the wrestling team is really motivating me.”

After missing so much time, Martin said Platts — who didn’t wrestle a match until Jan. 14 — finally looks like he has the stamina he needs to supplement his skills.

“He put a solid tournament together and basically took it to everybody,” said Martin, who noted Platts was winning but “ran out of gas” 10 days prior to a wrestler from Washington (W.Va.) in his one defeat this year. “He was like the Energizer Bunny today. He just kept working hard, and kept trying to score and increase his lead.”

Martin was also pleased with the performance of the senior Simmons (48-7), who won his first postseason tournament in two years, the final Northwestern District tournament that was held in 2013.

Simmons defeated Woodgrove’s Garrett Cook 8-2 in the final for his second win over Cook in two weeks. Simmons’ semifinal win might have been the bigger victory though, because he lost to No. 3 seed Tyler Perales of Loudoun County last week by a point after leading him by four. Simmons pinned Perales in 4:14 Saturday.

“I watched [film of the Perales match] every day of the week and practiced harder and harder every day, just so I could come out and win that match,” Simmons said. “That was a big win for me.”

Four matches later, the sophomore Borst (50-2) notched a big one of his own.

Prior to last Saturday Borst had lost all six lifetime meetings against Woodgrove’s Jake David, including last year’s Conference 21 and 4A North Region title matches at 152 pounds, and a regular season meeting this year.

But Borst beat David 6-3 in the Conference 21 duals, and showed Saturday that win was no fluke. There wasn’t a single moment that David looked comfortable — Borst had a clutch double-leg takedown in which he barely kept his toes in with one second left in the first period to score the match’s first points, then dropped David and cradled his head and leg to earn a pin 59 seconds into the second period.

“When [Borst] locks up that lower leg cradle, it is tight,” Martin said. “[These last two weeks] says a lot about John’s preparation, and his confidence and belief in his ability.”

In addition to Platts, Simmons, Borst and Avery, Sherando will also send Curtis Guthridge (second at 126 pounds, 3-2 loss to Woodgrove’s Dylan Shockey in the final), Justin Feighery (second at 132, 10-1 loss to Heritage’s Jacob Holton in the final), Mike Duffy (third at 120), James Platts (third at 145), Anthony Damico (fourth at 113) and Kendall Helsley (fourth at 182) to regionals.

For James Wood, Black (43-4) ripped through the field as expected, and accomplished his goal of not allowing any points to his opponents in piling up a technical fall and two pins, including a pin in 1:55 of Park View’s Dylan Sieng in the final.

In the 152 final, however, Woznak (46-8) was going up against a wrestler in Woodgrove’s Joe LaRock who he lost to 5-1 last week. After battling through two scoreless periods, LaRock struck first with an early escape in the third, but Woznak quickly answered with a takedown to take a 2-1 lead with 1:24 left.

“When I wrestled him last time, I was getting in deep with my sweeps, but I wasn’t able to finish them, because he’s so lanky,” Woznak said. “[Assistant] coach [Frank] Moore and I, we worked on coming right up to our feet off the sweep. [Saturday], I was able to do that, scramble from there, get both ankles and get the two.”

Woznak’s work was far from over after that takedown. He had to control LaRock through three more stoppages — one at 50 seconds, one at 4.6, and the last at the buzzer.

“You’ve just got to stay under the arms and make sure you’re tight on the hips,” said Woznak of those final 84 seconds. “He’s a good scrambler, so I knew especially on the edges of the mats, I had to stay in a good position. It’s conference finals, so you always want to work a little harder for that win.”

Many Woodgrove fans didn’t seem to think Woznak controlled LaRock the entire time. They yelled “two!” for a reversal numerous times in the last 10 seconds prior to the stoppages at 50 and 4.6 seconds. LaRock seemed to think he got at least one — he slammed his headgear down after the match to cost the Wolverines a team point.

But the ref didn’t award Woznak a takedown in the first period when the Colonels thought he got one. The bottom line was that Woznak earned a hard-fought win.

“I thought Jimmy wrestled a smart match,” James Wood coach Greg Walker said. “When Jimmy’s taking shots, then we’re in good shape. When he doesn’t, who knows what’s going to happen. He wrestled well and worked hard this week.”

Walker said he was hoping to get more than eight qualifiers (the Colonels may get a ninth if Woodgrove’s heavyweight is too injured next week) but felt the team had a solid tournament.

“The kids worked well,” Walker said. “I’d rather have 10, but we’ve got eight. The big thing now is seeing if we can get four or five of those kids to go to states.”

Walker said he was impressed with sophomore Matt Artrup at 120 pounds. Artrup beat Sherando’s Duffy in the semifinals after losing to him last week, and after getting pinned by Millbrook’s Meushaw last week Artrup was within 6-4 with 55 seconds left before ultimately losing 8-4. Also going to regionals for the Colonels are Hunter Bentley (182 pounds, lost to Millbrook’s Wisman by fall in 1:17 in the final), Corey Lemons (third at 106), D.J. Christian (third at 195), Adam Vadell (third at 220) and Thomas Papastavrou (fourth at 132).

For Millbrook, Wisman (state champion last year) and Meushaw (state finalist) had expected success, but junior Joe Tanner (24-14) continued his strong ascension by pinning No. 1 seed Will Gehl of Woodgrove in 2:19. Tanner — who lost to Gehl last week — trailed 2-0 after one period and started the second period on bottom. But he worked quickly to reverse position, get a pin, and generate a roar from the Millbrook fans.

“It was a dogfight,” Tanner said. “He was working really hard on top, going through some moves, trying to break my spirits. But an opportunity opened up, and I just seized it.

“I feel like I’ve gotten a lot better since the beginning of the year. With the help of my coaching staff and my teammates, I felt like I went from being on the lower level, then to mediocre, and now I feel like I can compete on the highest level.”

Millbrook coach Jeff Holmes said Tanner was dealing with injuries and illness at the beginning of the year. He’s also had problems with focus at times, so the team rode him hard this past week.

“He’s a very dedicated and committed wrestler, but we just had to get him to push through the pain in the room,” Holmes said. “We focused on that this week, and we saw that in his wrestling.”

As for the team, Holmes said he was shooting for 8-10 region qualifiers. But since the Pioneers only had six wrestlers seeded in the top four, he’ll take what Millbrook did Saturday.

“I was hoping we’d win a couple matches we weren’t supposed to win, but every guy wrestled hard,” Holmes said. “Even though some didn’t win a match, they gave it a grind and their best effort, and that’s really all I can ask.”

Millbrook will also send Corey Gloyd (third at 126), Xever Lemieux (third at 160), Isaac Patterson (fourth at 138) and Elijah Doyle (fourth at 220) to regionals.

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