Judges Invitational - James Wood takes second

WINCHESTER — Web Bentley has wanted a championship at his own school’s tournament since he arrived at Handley as a freshman, and he sure made a statement in his last chance to get one.

After pinning his first three opponents, the senior 138-pounder avenged one of his three losses this year in the championship match on Saturday at the Judges Invitational.

Later in the afternoon, it was announced that the medal placed around his neck on the podium wasn’t going to be the only hardware he was going to take home. Bentley was given a plaque for winning Most Outstanding Wrestler honors for the 106- through 145-pound weight classes.

“It’s great,” said Bentley after the tournament’s conclusion. “It’s kind of bittersweet since it’s my last home tournament, but it’s great to finally have the win at this tournament because I’ve been working for four years to try and actually win in the finals here.”

The 14 championship bouts in Saturday’s 12-team tournament featured eight local wrestlers. But Bentley — who defeated Tuscarora’s Matt Roberts 5-2 — was the only one to emerge victorious.

Five of those finalists belonged to James Wood. The Colonels only filled 12 of the 14 weight classes, but they had nine people place fourth or higher in taking second as a team with 375 points. Chantilly won with 424 points. Handley placed eighth with 295.5 points.

The tournament was originally scheduled to have 16 teams, but four were not permitted to attend because of Saturday’s inclement weather, including Clarke County. A rolling schedule was used to get the tournament completed as quickly as possible since the Loudoun County schools had to be back on their campuses by 3 p.m. Consolation bouts were competed simultaneously with the championship finals.

Bentley (25-3 record) was certainly glad that the weather wasn’t bad enough to wipe out the tournament entirely.

A Judges Invitational runner-up last year at 138 pounds, Bentley pinned each of his first three opponents in the first period to set up a showdown with Roberts (22-4), who defeated Bentley 2-0 in the Tusky Duals at Tuscarora High School on Dec. 1.

In their first match, Roberts took down Bentley in the first period for the match’s only points. On Saturday, it was Bentley’s fast start that made the difference, as he recorded a takedown 33 seconds into the match for a 2-0 lead he would never surrender.

“I knew I had to get ahead because he’s a really good wrestler,” Bentley said. “I figured if I was ahead, and he was chasing, trying to score, I’d be able to work myself better.”

Roberts earned an escape point with 16 seconds left in the first period to make it 2-1, but Bentley earned an escape just six seconds into the second period to go up 3-1.

Roberts cut his deficit to 3-2 in the third with another escape, but Bentley prevented him from mounting any realistic takedown attempt over the remainder of the match.

“I made sure to control his arms and control his hands so he wouldn’t be able to take a clean shot in on me,” Bentley said.

The match was stopped briefly when Bentley felt something move unnaturally in Roberts’ arm, causing both wrestlers to pull away and trainers to attend to Roberts. Roberts was able to continue and tried a desperation throw of Bentley in the final seconds, but instead, Bentley landed on top of Roberts for a takedown and a 5-2 win.

Handley coach Troy Mezzatesta said Bentley simply wasn’t able to match Roberts’ level of conditioning in the first match between the two, but he felt Bentley more than held his own on Saturday.

“Web showed the gas tank is back on,” Mezzatesta said. “He wrestled a really smart match. Did the things he does well, and just showed that he’s getting stronger and progressing as the year goes on, which is what you want to see.

“I’m excited for him, his senior year, to get the championship and Most Outstanding Wrestler. I couldn’t be more proud. At your own tournament, in particular, you want to see your guys do well.”

James Wood didn’t take home an individual championship, but its tournament-best nine top-four finishes helped it take second for the second straight year.

Those who lost in the finals for the Colonels were Chris Nuss (25-9 record) at 132 pounds (19-6 to Tuscarora’s Brecan Saul, 25-4 record); Matt Alderson (14-7) at 145 (pinned in 3:47 by Tuscarora’s Nate Swank, 28-3); Joey Vitola (20-7) at 152 (18-5 to Osbourn Park’s James Hardy, 4-0); Jared King (22-8) at 182 (11-6 to John Champe’s Nathan Williams, 39-1); and Brayden Patterson-Campbell (18-12) at 285 (6-1 to Chantilly’s Andres Sagastume, 18-2).

Also leading James Wood were Vince Caruso (third at 113), Walker Powell (third at 170), Braden Sitton (fourth at 106) and Joshua Arce (fourth at 113).

Though the Colonels had a rough time in the finals, James Wood coach Cory Crenshaw was pleased to see so many of his wrestlers advance deep into the tournament. Crenshaw said it was particularly big to see Alderman make the finals. Crenshaw said Alderman hadn’t competed in a match since the middle of December because of injury.

“The main thing today was getting mat time,” Crenshaw said. “Everybody was fighting that weather. It’s good we got everything in. That was the main thing. As a whole, I think the guys did well. We had a lot of guys who stayed and fought for a long time. The final round didn’t really show how good we did for the day.”

James Wood did not have wrestlers at 195 and 220 because of injuries. The 195-pounder — Luke Roy, who took sixth in the Class 4 state meet last year — wrestled on Wednesday against Handley but has struggled with an injury for the last month. Crenshaw said it’s possible Roy might not return to action the rest of the season.

King was within striking distance of Williams at 6-4 after two periods in the 182 final, but an escape and takedown put King down 9-4. All six of King’s points came on escapes.

“In the match before that [a 3-2 win over Tuscarora’s Cameron Eman], I was taking good shots and wasn’t finishing them, so I was trying to focus on working on finishing the shots [against Williams],” said King, who at 6 feet, 1 inch tall is a couple inches shorter than Williams. “I ended up not taking as many [shots] as I would have liked, but I thought I did pretty well with him, especially on bottom. I just kept standing up as quick as I could, trying to out-gas him.

“He’s a lot taller than most of the guys [I wrestle], so he was further out and harder to take shots on. He’s pretty strong, too, so I couldn’t really work in my underhooks as much. He was like a bear, basically. I was trying to work in, and I was having a lot of trouble there.”

Handley’s other two finalists were Mac Gordon (26-7), who fell 7-2 at 126 pounds to W.T. Woodson’s Anthony Martin (24-3), a Class 6 state runner-up last year at 120 pounds; and Tommy Downey (25-10), who was pinned in 3:46 by Potomac Senior’s Emmanuel Ayi-Bonte, who was named Most Outstanding Wrestler for weight classes 152-285.

Gordon trailed only 2-1 heading into the third period before Martin took control with an escape and takedown in the first 17 seconds.

“For Mac to not be here last year because of [missing the season with a knee injury] and this year to be wrestling such a high-caliber kid, those are the matches you can’t replicate in your practice sessions, but to able to put yourself in positions to wrestle kids like that will only make you better,” Mezzatesta said.

Also for Handley, Hunter Thompson took third at 145 pounds.

The Judges have some injury concerns as well.

After going 17-1 in December, 152-pounder Ethan Bishop remained winless in January. Bishop — who had only wrestled twice this month coming into Saturday — aggravated his back injury and was eventually pinned in the second period against Osbourn Park’s Hardy in his first match. Bishop then forfeited his remaining two matches. Mezzatesta said 160-pounder Landen Kremer hasn’t wrestled in the past two weeks and the team is not sure when he’ll be ready to return.

Following James Wood in the team standings were Tuscarora (third with 360.5), Tuscarora (357.5), Battlefield (322), John Champe (321), Woodgrove (317), Handley, Spring Mills, W.Va. (276), Osbourn Park (220), Potomac Senior (219.5) and Park View (179.5).

Other weight class champions were Spring Mills’ Michael Dolan (106) and Chance Williams (113), W.T. Woodson’s Joey Martin (120) and Max Sheehe (170), Chantilly’s Ryan Romero (160) and Osbourn Park’s Luke Nitowski (220). Romero won his final by forfeit because Tuscarora’s Tanner Barbour had to leave early so the team could get back to school by 3 p.m.

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