Black's win leads Colonels at Walters-Copp Invitational

The Winchester Star

WINCHESTER — James Wood senior Aaron Black made sure someone was standing at the top of the podium at the Colonels’ own tournament this year.

One year after the Colonels saw all three of their finalists lose at the Willie Walters/Jaye Copp Tournament, Black — James Wood’s only finalist — ran out to a 10-0 lead after two periods against Sherando’s Timmy Dieter en route to an 11-1 victory in the 120-pound final.

Black — a 2014 state champion at 106 pounds — was one of four local state champions who won their weight classes on Thursday inside Donald H. Shirley Gymnasium.

Clarke County senior Bayne Gordon (132 pounds, three-time state champion) and Eagles junior Bryan Wallace (220, two state titles) each pinned all four of their opponents en route to championships, and Sherando senior John Borst (220, two state titles) pinned all three of his opponents in winning his third straight Most Outstanding Wrestler award at the Walters/Copp.

Handley senior Jimmy Vitola was the only other local to win, as he took the 182-pound title for the first tournament championship of his career.

Vitola’s effort led Handley to a second-place finish, the best among local schools in the 17-team tournament. Defending champion Patrick Henry (205.5 points) was the only school to best the Judges (151 points). Sherando was fourth with 137 points, Clarke County was eighth with 101, and James Wood was ninth with 96.

Black is a two-time state runner-up in addition to being a 2013 state champion, but he wasn’t even one of those Colonel finalists last year. Black lost 6-5 in the semifinals to Theo Thaxton of Patrick Henry, a Group 5A school, and had to settle for third at 113.

“I didn’t want to lose in my final tournament here,” Black said. “It’s my senior year, and I’m putting in as much effort as I can.”

At 14-0, Black hasn’t lost at all this year.

James Wood wasn’t able to participate in Turner Ashby’s tournament last weekend because of what Colonels coach Cory Crenshaw called “transportation issues,” so Black missed out on some strong competition.

But Black’s taken plenty of steps to try and go out on top as a senior.

“I’m wrestling a different style this year, focusing on getting inside control as opposed to wrestling outside,” Black said. “That’s been a big change. I can set myself up more and I’m not wasting as much energy as I was.”

Black said he’s doing some different things as a result of working with Keith Wilson, a former U.S. women’s national team wrestling coach who used to live in Colorado but now lives 80 miles south of Frederick County.

Black said Wilson occasionally comes up to Frederick County to work with Black after weekday practices or on weekends if Black doesn’t have a tournament.

“He’s been really helpful,” Black said.

Black was in complete control in the first two periods against Dieter, getting a takedown 20 seconds into the match and adding three near-fall points to lead 5-0 after one. Black then recorded a reversal and three more near-fall points to take a 10-0 lead after two periods.

“I was keeping the pressure going,” Black said.

Black wasn’t able to establish any momentum in the third period, but he didn’t let Dieter get any offense going either.

“The third period, he kind of let down a little bit, and I think that’s just conditioning at this point,” Crenshaw said. “Other than that, his hips are where they’re supposed to be. We should keep seeing improvement out of him, and hopefully we’ll see him back in the [state] finals this year.”

In addition to Black, James Wood also had Matt Papastavrou place fourth at 145 and Bailey Eichelberger place third at 170.

While Black wasn’t able to wrestle this past weekend, Clarke County’s Gordon (23-3) and Wallace (25-2) both performed exceptionally at the prestigious Beast of the East tournament in Newark, Del. Wallace went 5-2 and placed fourth, and Gordon went 3-2.

Wallace doesn’t compete in as many national tournaments as wrestlers like Borst and Gordon, so he had virtually no expectations for what he could do.

“It was a fun tournament, one of the bigger tournaments I’ve gone to personally,” Wallace said. “I didn’t know how I was going to do. I just went out there to try and get my name out there, so I just went out there and had a good time. Competition like that makes you better.”

Clarke County coach Jon VanSice wasn’t able to attend the entire Beast because he was coaching the rest of the team at the Musselman (W.Va.) tournament, but he’s sure the experience should benefit both of them in the future.

VanSice said there was definitely no letdown from either of them at James Wood.

Gordon picked up his 100th career pin in his first match on Wednesday and led 13-0 when he finally pinned Culpeper’s Kameron Mize in 5:27 in the final, and Wallace didn’t let a single opponent survive the first period. Liberty’s Tyler Raymond succumbed by fall in 1:08 in the final.

“They had an outstanding tournament,” VanSice said. “Bayne wrestled an outstanding championship match, and Bryan did what Bryan does. He doesn’t like to spend a lot of time on the mat, it seems like. [In the final], I thought he wrestled as well as I’ve seen him wrestle all year.”

Clarke County was without four starters because of injury and illness, but other Eagles who placed in the top six were William Heath (third at 160) and Jack Smith (fifth at 113).

Handley’s Vitola (15-4) had never made a tournament final before taking second at Nansemond River, but you wouldn’t have known that based on the way he performed at James Wood the last two days.

The 182-pounder pinned each of his four opponents, including Sherando’s Zach McCarty in 1:20 in the final after securing McCarty’s arm and turning him onto his back.

“I’m wrestling my match and in more control of what I’m doing,” Vitola said. “I’m doing a better job of finishing when I get people on their back.”

Handley coach David Scott said Vitola is definitely coming on strong.

“Jimmy’s killing it right now,” Scott said. “He was staying in a good position, pinning people. Just lights out.

“Before he’d always kind of try things he necessarily couldn’t do. Now he’s doing the things that he’s good at and he’s doing them correctly, and that’s the difference.”

As a team, Handley had the most finalists among area schools, and the most placers.

Cam Bentley (12-6 loss to Tombola Sindihebura at 138), John Delaney (16-0 tech fall loss in 4:20 to Austin Reames of Stonewall Jackson-Manassas at 145) and Jensen Lofton (10-2 loss to Liberty’s Patrick Ewell at 152) each took second as a result of their finals defeats. Handley was also led by Mac Gordon (third at 113), Web Bentley (fourth at 132) and Casey Marchant (fifth at 160).

“We’ve got a decent tournament team, so whenever we come to an individual tournament, we’re excited,” Scott said. “I didn’t know for certain that we’d finish second, but I’m certainly happy that we did. I’m excited about where the team is going.”

As always, Sherando was led by Borst, whose record is now 25-0 after needing just three minutes and six seconds to pin his three opponents. Borst finished things off with a pin of Liberty’s Cordell Smith in 1:49 in the 195 final.

Borst became the first wrestler in area history to win his weight class at the Beast of the East on Sunday. Borst was sick the entire time though, so he was pleased he was able work quickly the last two days in front of a familiar crowd.

“Tournaments like this are about spending time with my wrestling friends I grew up with, and putting on a show for the local [pre high-school] kids,” Borst said. “They want to see us wrestle, and it’s fun. If I can put a smile on their face, I did my job for the day. I think I went out there and took care of business.”

Sherando coach Pepper Martin said it was another outstanding performance from Borst and he was pleased with his placers. (In addition to Borst, Dieter and McCarty, who had never made the podium in a tournament before, Sherando also placed Jacob Stevens, 138, third, Matt Damico, 126, fourth, and Jackson Bryant, 132, sixth.)

But Martin said he wants to see more from his team as a whole.

“This was our first bracket tournament of the season,” Martin said. “We’ve got seven new starters, and this was a great opportunity to get a feel for the experience.

“Right now, we’re not a very good tournament team. We have a number of weight classes where we’re not getting any points at all or very few points, and to be able to compete in the postseason, we’ve got to get more than three in the finals.”

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