Sherando edges James Wood 33-32 in wrestling thriller

By JERRY HOLSWORTH Special to The Star

WINCHESTER — In a meet typical of the ones staged over the years by cross-county wrestling rivals Sherando and James Wood, the Warriors fought back from a 16-0 deficit to defeat the Colonels 33-32 on Tuesday.

“This meet turned into a good, old-fashioned barn-burner,” Sherando coach Pepper Martin said. “We didn’t have much of a start. We were leading in both of the first matches, but we made a mistake and got pinned. So right out of the gate we’re down 12-0.”

Although several matches were critical to Sherando’s success, the last one between Warrior Tucker Anderson and Colonel Tyler Arnold was typical of the meet.

With Sherando leading 33-29, Arnold needed a pin, a major decision or a technical fall at 152 pounds to overtake or tie the Warriors. Trailing 2-0 after the first period, Anderson took the lead 4-3 with two minutes left. Anderson still led 6-5 until the last two seconds when Arnold tied it at 6-6 on an escape. It took Arnold just eight seconds to take down Anderson and win the match in overtime 8-6, but the Colonels came up just point short of the team win.

It was a thrilling comeback that seemed unlikely after the first three matches. Wood’s Jack Youngblood began the meet with a fall against Mikeal Neff, pinning the Sherando senior in 1:36 at 160 pounds.

“I was really excited coming into this meet,” Youngblood said. “I was getting ready for it all week. I wanted to come out and do my best, and I think I did.”

Colonel Paul Ebersole followed with a pin of Trenten Anderson (1:56) at 170 and Bailey Eichelberger (182) finished the Wood run with an 8-0 major decision over Zach McCarty to put the Colonels up 16-0.

Sherando recovered to get a pair of pins to narrow the Colonel lead to 16-12. Two-time defending state champion and Virginia Tech signee John Borst pinned Luke Roy in 37 seconds at 195 and Zack Kales won by fall in 1:47 over Jared King at 220. When Wood’s Kobey Brooker took the 285 win with a forfeit, the Colonels led 22-12 heading into the small weight classes.

The Warriors then began to turn the meet in their favor, responding with a pair of falls to take their first lead at 24-22. Zane Hawkins pinned Wood’s Vince Caruso in 4:12 at 103 and Gavin Eanes (1:52) followed with a first-period pin of Jacob Pugh.

“We were able to get some pins in the small weight classes and that gave us our first lead,” Martin said.

Aaron Black (120) got the lead back for the Colonels (25-24) with a 5-2 decision over Timmy Dieter.

“I really thought Timmy had one of the best matches of the evening against one of the best wrestlers in the area,” Martin said. “In fact, a couple of our losses tonight was some of the best wrestling I’ve seen from our kids this year. They fought hard throughout.”

“Aaron is trying to work on different things right now,” Wood coach Cory Crenshaw said. “He knows how to wrestle, and his Sherando opponent did a really good job.”

Sherando got three straight decisions to pull ahead 33-25. Sherando’s Anthony Damico won 7-3 over Corey Lemons at 126, Jackson Bryant edged Jac Bobadilla 3-2 at 132 and Jacob Stevens defeated Sam Atkins 9-2 at 138.

“I knew that every point going into the match was going to be really big,” Damico said. “After I got the first takedown, I tried to stay in control and look for a pin. I was working hard not to give up any back points or reversals. As you can see, a couple of those and we lose this meet.”

The Colonels weren’t ready to throw in the towel and Matt Papastavrou brought Wood to within four points by scoring a 15-1 major decision over Quinn McPartland at 145.

“I’m not really that disappointed in how things turned out,” Crenshaw said. “To lose by a point to a team like Sherando after the long break we’ve had isn’t that disappointing. We wrestled tough and got to them early, but they came back in the middle and matched us.”