James Wood repeats as Walters/Copp wrestling champion

WINCHESTER — On Dec. 8, the James Wood wrestling team repeated as champions at the Max Horz Invitational in Berkeley Springs (W.Va.) by dominating the second day of competition after trailing by five points at the end of the first day.

On Saturday, the Colonels simply decided to dominate from the start to repeat as champions at their own tournament.

James Wood opened up a 29.5-point lead on Friday with pins in 20 of its 26 matches, then more than doubled that lead on Saturday. James Wood added 10 more pins and had 12 of its 13 scoring wrestlers placed in the top six to claim its second straight Willie Walters/Jaye Copp Holiday Wrestling Tournament with 257 points, 64 more than Class 4 Northwestern District rival Liberty’s 193.

Millbrook took third with 138 points and Clarke County placed last in the 17-team tournament with 24 points. The Pioneers were led by individual champions Jonathan Ochoa (113 pounds), a junior, and senior Daniel VanAmburg, who was named Most Outstanding Wrestler as a result of pinning three out of four opponents en route to the 152-pound title.

James Wood was far and away the most outstanding team, though.

“We wracked up a lot of pins on Day 1, and those bonus points gave us a nice cushion,” James Wood coach Cory Crenshaw said. “That was a big deal as we kind of worked through the day [Saturday] and kept progressing.”

Seniors Joshua Arce (126 pounds), Walker Powell (170) and Jared King (182) led the effort by capturing the first Walters/Copp individual titles of their careers. For Powell and King, it was their first varsity tournament titles of any kind.

James Wood had three second-place finishers (freshman Braden Sitton at 106 pounds, junior Vince Caruso at 113 and sophomore Christopher Nuss at 132), two place third (sophomore Aidan Barton at 120 and sophomore Joey Vitola at 152) and three fourth-place finishers (sophomore Dean Ritter at 138, junior Blake Sandy at 145 and junior Sam Adkins at 160). The Colonels also had a non-scoring wrestler take fifth at 170 in Gavin Small.

James Wood’s only returning state placer, Luke Roy, took sixth at 195, and he likely would have added more to James Wood’s point total if he was healthy. Crenshaw said Roy aggravated a football injury in practice and struggled throughout the weekend, and he ultimately forfeited his fifth-place match. Roy was the only Colonel to not get a pin.

But the fact that James Wood was able to dominate without one of its best wrestlers shows just how good it has been this year. The Colonels opened the year by winning the Warren County Duals on Dec. 1, won the Max Horz by 106 points on Dec. 8 and took second only to Warren County at the combined Class 3 and 4 Northwestern District tournament on Dec. 15.

“As a team, we have a really good bond,” King said. “We just keep working hard in practice. I think we can definitely keeping taking home hardware from these tournaments if we just keep working together and working hard.”

One aspect that James Wood hadn’t had much luck with coming into Saturday was tournament finals. The Colonels only won 2 of 8 finals matches at the Max Horz, and last week they lost both of their finals matches at the Northwestern District tournament.

Saturday didn’t start off much better. Sitton (15-5 record) was pinned in 1:01 in the 106-pound final by Mason Barrett (16-1) of Liberty, who took third at the Class 4 state meet last year. In the 113-pound final, Ochoa beat Caruso (14-2) 5-4 as a result of an escape with 35 seconds left.

After giving up the first takedown, Arce (11-2) came through in the 126-pound final, rallying to lead by the end of the first period and expanding his advantage to 11-6 by the end of the second period over Waynesboro’s Dylan Kahn (16-5).

“I normally start off a little bit slow, but I just had to get my head back in it,” Arce said. “I just tried to keep pushing and tried to keep wrestling.

“It means a lot [to win at our own tournament]. I’m really happy with what I did today, and I just hope I can keep going throughout the season like this.”

In the 132 final, Nuss (16-3) lost 9-2 to Berkeley Springs’ Cole Morris (26-5), a wrestler that Nuss beat 4-2 in the Max Horz final. (Morris easily stepped around Nuss’ low shot and got around him for the match’s first takedown, and Crenshaw said Morris did a good job of denying scoring opportunities the rest of the match.)

Powell (11-5) scored the first five points in the 170-pound final, but late in the second period, he found himself tied 8-8 with Woodgrove’s Joe Jovene (6-3). But Powell got a crucial reverse just before the second-period buzzer, giving him a 10-8 lead en route to an 11-8 win.

“I did a sit-out, and I hit a switch on him,” Powell said. “That set me up pretty well for the third period.”

Powell’s first varsity tournament win meant a lot to him.

“I feel like I’m bringing some pride to the James Wood name,” Powell said. “And we have a lot of [former] varsity guys here, so it’s cool to win in front of them, too.”

King (14-3) took control at 182 with an early takedown in the first period against Massapannox’s Declan Williams (6-3). Williams got a takedown in the final 30 seconds of the match to make it 3-2 but after King went up 4-2 on an escape he tied up Williams after he made one last shot attempt at him with five seconds left.

“Once I got the takedown, I felt I was in good position, and I just tried to be defensive from there,” King said. “I should have taken more shots later, but it ended up working out in my favor.”

VanAmburg (16-1) was in complete control against Berkeley Springs’ Vaughn Shaw (21-4) in the 152-pound final, recording three three-point near falls before finally finishing him off with a pin with 27 seconds left in the third period. VanAmburg did not give up a point while running out to a double-digit lead.

The 2018 state qualifier VanAmburg has been exceptional this year. He was the only wrestler from Winchester or Frederick County to win his weight class at last week’s combined district tournament. He avenged his only loss of the season in the process by beating Warren County’s Isaiah Frame 2-0 in the final last week.

“My hips are extremely better [this year] because I’m actually focusing on keeping them up,” VanAmburg said. “This was the perfect follow-up from last week. Winning two back-to-back tournaments boosts my confidence.”

Ochoa (19-1) was the first Millbrook winner of the night, getting the escape he needed late to continue his success against Caruso. Ochoa said Caruso beat him the first time they wrestled last year, but Ochoa earned 14-5 (district) and 16-10 (region) victories in the postseason last year.

“When he got on top of me, I just worked hard to get out,” Ramirez said. “I just got my legs out [to get the escape].”

Because of injuries, sickness and wrestlers away because of the holidays, Millbrook only had nine wrestlers compete over the weekend. VanAmburg said it bodes well for the future that Millbrook could take third with so many wrestlers out.

Also placing for the Pioneers was junior Jose Cruz Ramirez (11-5 record, lost by tech fall in 5:48 by the score of 20-5 in the 138-pound final to Bryan Contreras of Liberty), sophomore Jack Winans (13-7 record, lost 12-0 to Liberty’s Justin Cannon in the 195-pound final) and junior 120-pounder Cody Glover and junior 220-pounder Daniel Flores, who each took fifth place.

Pioneers coach Jeff Holmes was pleased with the performance.

“I told them before [the tournament] that there’s no pressure,” Holmes said. “It was, ‘Can we wrestle to our potential?’ and ‘Have a little bit of fun out there? I told them to wrestle six hard minutes, and we’ll see what happens at the end of the day. [To take third], I’m happy.

“[Daniel’s] wrestling fantastic. You really can’t ask for anything more. He’s our captain, he’s our leader. He pushes the pace, he grinds on top. He’s doing great and he’s only going to get better.”

Freshman Roger Tapscott (sixth at 182) was the only Clarke County wrestler who placed. The Eagles were without past state qualifiers in Jack Smith and Jack Dawson Parrott because of ailments, and another, Emmett Maiberger, was making his first appearance in Clarke County’s lineup in three weeks.

“We’ve just got to get on the mat and get some experience under our belts,” Clarke County coach Jon VanSice said. “We’ve got a young team, and we’ve got to come out here and scrap and fight for everything, and see what happens.”

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