Class 4 Northwestern District - Wrestling

WINCHESTER — Senior Night didn’t go at all the way Daniel VanAmburg planned, but the Millbrook senior wrestler sure made his final match in his home gym one to remember on Saturday night.

Ten days after James Wood’s Joey Vitola pinned VanAmburg at Casey Gymnasium on Millbrook’s Senior Night, VanAmburg turned the tables by beating Vitola 4-0 to win the 152-pound championship at the Class 4 Northwestern District tournament.

VanAmburg improved to 2-1 against the sophomore Vitola this season with the win.

“[Senior Night] was upsetting,” said Van Amburg, who was pinned in one minute by Vitola on Jan. 23. “I was in the last match [of the night]. People were expecting me to wrestle well. They were expecting me to win. But he caught me [for a pin]. That happens.

“But you can’t beat what happened tonight. I’ll get pinned at Senior Night every night if I can win districts every time.”

The win over Vitola gave VanAmburg the first district title of his career. Each of the five local champions on Saturday are first-time district champions.

Joining VanAmburg at the top of the podium were teammate Jonathan Ochoa (113) and the Sherando trio of senior Timmy Dieter (132), sophomore Heath Rudolph (145) and junior Caleb McLee (220).

Fauquier defended its title by scoring 201 points, three more than runner-up Liberty (198). James Wood (10 regional qualifiers) was third with 157.5 points, Kettle Run was fourth with 143.5, Sherando (five) was fifth with 133, Millbrook (seven) was sixth with 130, and Handley (six) was seventh with 104.5.

The top four wrestlers in each weight class will compete in next Saturday’s Region 4C tournament at Heritage High School in Leesburg.

VanAmburg (36-6 record) beat Vitola 11-4 in the quarterfinals of the Willie Walters/Jaye Copp Holiday tournament on Dec. 21. VanAmburg said Vitola hadn’t wrestled in a while before that tournament though, so he didn’t think Vitola (23-8) was in peak condition.

Vitola got the pin in the rematch, but couldn’t manage a single point on Saturday. VanAmburg scored the first points of the match on a reversal 33 seconds into the second period, then added a takedown with 1:19 to go in the match when he was able to get on top of Vitola after he took a low shot.

“[Vitola’s] very good with all the scrambles, he’s very good at his positions,” VanAmburg said. “But I capitalized [on my opportunities].”

Millbrook coach Jeff Holmes said VanAmburg wrestled a smart match.

“Joey kind of has an unorthodox style,” Holmes said. “He’s got some big moves in his back pocket. I told Danny we don’t have to get it all in one shot. We kind of developed a game plan to wrestle a smart and well-positioned match, and that’s what Danny did.”

Though James Wood didn’t have any champions (junior Sam Adkins lost 9-5 to Fauquier’s Darryl Mayfield, owner of a 22-8 record, in the 160-pound final), the Colonels dominated the consolation semifinals and finals to vault from fifth place to third. James Wood went 8-3 in the consolation semis, then went a combined 8-3 in the third-place and fifth-place matches.

The Colonels’ 10 regional qualifiers are the most among local schools for the second straight year. In addition to Vitola and Adkins (16-9), James Wood will send third-place finishers Vince Caruso (113), Aidan Barton (120), Joshua Arce (126), Chris Nuss (132) and Walker Powell (170) and fourth-place finishers Braden Sitton (106), Dean Ritter (138) and Brayden Patterson-Campbell (285) to the region tournament.

“From a team perspective, we did our usual thing,” James Wood coach Cory Crenshaw said. “Consistency paid off for us. We had a lot of guys [who were third or fourth place]. That’s kind of what keeps us up there.

“I’m proud of Sam and Joey making the finals today. We had a couple guys wrestle well for third. A couple of those matches were kind of those coin flips. A lot of times this year we’ve struggled in that final round and our guys have taken fourth, so getting a lot of thirds was a big step for us.”

Dieter (41-2) entered the postseason as the area’s leader in winning percentage, with his only two losses coming to wrestlers from Pennsylvania.

On Saturday though, Dieter nearly lost to a wrestler he had already beaten before in Liberty’s Bryan Contreras (43-9).

Dieter gave up a takedown with 29 seconds left in the first period to fall behind 2-0 and still found himself trailing 3-2 following a stoppage with 46 seconds in the third period. But with 29 seconds left, Dieter extended his body about as far as he possibly could to grab Contreras’ leg and stay in-bounds on a takedown with 29 seconds left for a 4-3 lead.

After a restart, Dieter wrapped his legs around Contreras’ waist to maintain control and finish off the win.

Dieter won 9-3 over Contreras on Jan. 9 in a quad at Kettle Run.

“He was definitely defending my shots a lot better [compared to the last match],” Dieter said. “I just had to stay calm, and I knew I’d eventually get a takedown and I’d eventually end up winning.

“I usually go to an ankle-pick on his left side, but he saw that coming and was defending that pretty easily. I had to switch it up and go sweep to his right side [to get the takedown].”

With more than 180 wins and two top-four finishes at the state tournament, Dieter’s accomplished a ton in his career. But with state champions Aaron Black (James Wood) and Kyle Budd (Fauquier) to contend with nearby in his first years, a postseason title eluded him until Saturday.

“It definitely would have meant more last year beating a returning state finalist [in Budd] and kind of being the underdog almost,” Dieter said. “But you can’t really complain about winning a Northwestern District title. It’s exciting.”

Rudolph (39-9) — who earned Most Outstanding Wrestler honors last week at the Big Red Invitational at Riverheads High School — had another strong performance on Saturday. After winning his first two matches by fall and decision, respectively, Rudolph built up a 10-1 lead with two five-point sequences in the first period against Fauquier’s Eric DeWald (29-15).

Rudolph struggled at the start of the third period and gave up three takedowns in the first 48 seconds. But Rudolph steadied himself, picking up an escape with 1:05 left and then a takedown with 20 seconds to go.

“I started off great. I should have gotten the pin there,” Rudolph said. “But I gassed out too much in the third period. I was disappointed in myself. I’ll have to work on my gas tank going into next weekend, for sure. But eventually I stopped his momentum.

“But it was a good win. I’m really excited to get the district title. I’ve been working for it all offseason.”

As former state qualifiers, Dieter and Rudolph have plenty of big-match experience. McLee (25-17) is in his first year of wrestling, and he handled his first postseason tournament exceptionally.

McLee — who beat Handley’s RaeQuan Wilson 5-3 in the semifinals — trailed 1-0 late in the second period in the 220-pound final against Fauquier’s Casey Burr. But McLee scored on a takedown just before the buzzer to take a 2-1 lead, then dominated the third period. He had an escape and a takedown within the first 10 seconds for a 5-1 lead. McLee added a five-point sequence later in the period.

McLee said he decided to try wrestling this year because he thought it might help him out with football. He’s glad he did.

“It’s pretty fun, and the coaches are pretty great and really helpful,” he said. “My confidence has gotten higher as I started to get better.”

Sherando coach Brian Kibler feels the Class 4 Northwestern District is the best district in the state, so McLee’s achievement is no small feat.

“I think [his title] is a testament to what kind of athlete he is,” Kibler said. “He’s got a lot of strength and competitive spirit. His hips have gotten a lot better over the course of the season. Just controlling positions that he’s good at, just trying to find his way back there, is what he’s kind of really progressed with from Week 1 to now.

“[In Saturday’s final], in the third period, I think he wore on the guy. That’s one of the big things we’re after him about. Just wear on the guy, wear on the guy, keep your position, and eventually your position starts to translate to scores.”

Sherando will also send DeShawn Lee (33-13, pinned in 1:56 by Liberty’s William Phipps in the 285-pound final] and Brian Jimenez (fourth at 170) to regionals.

Millbrook’s Ochoa (39-6) dominated in the 113-pound final. The junior took down Kettle Run’s Logan Hall (28-9) 15 seconds into the match. He led 6-2 after one period and 11-4 after two in a match that saw him record seven takedowns and seven near-fall points.

“It means a lot to me [to win my first postseason title],” Ochoa said. “Hopefully I’ll win more.”

Holmes said Ochoa’s previous success against Hall showed on Saturday.

“For whatever reason Jonathan has a lot of confidence when he wrestles [Hall],” Holmes said. “He goes out there and tries to dominate him. That kid’s tough, but I think Jonathan is kind of in that kid’s head. [Ochoa] wrestled aggressively.”

Millbrook’s other regional qualifiers are Josue Ortiz (third at 106), Jack Winans (third at 182), Jose Teran (fourth at 160) and Landon Anderson (fourth at 195).

“Sometimes it can be tough to get out of this [district],” Holmes said. “There’s a couple of kids who I think could compete at states who won’t even have an opportunity to wrestle at regions, but I’m happy for the guys we did get through.”

Among the wrestlers Holmes was pleased with was Ortiz, who lost by tech fall to James Wood’s Sitton (19-4) on Jan. 23 but won 6-2 in the third-place match Saturday. Ortiz also pinned Sherando’s Michael Gause in 3:38 in the consolation semifinals to earn a spot in the region tournament after losing to him 14-0 on Jan. 17.

Handley will send six wrestlers to the region tournament: Mac Gordon (second at 126), Web Bentley (second at 138), Ethan Bishop (third at 152), Tommy Downey (third at 195), Hunter Thompson (fourth at 145) and Wilson (fourth at 220).

Gordon (32-9) and Bentley (30-5) dealt with some frustration in their finals matches.

Gordon led 3-2 heading into the third period against Liberty’s Austin Harris (41-9), but he was nearly pinned after a reversal 17 seconds into the period to fall behind 7-3. Gordon managed an escape with 1:13 to go, but Gordon couldn’t mount much offense the rest of the match as Harris repeatedly drifted toward the edge of the mat and wound up out-of-bounds. Handley coaches repeatedly asked for stalling calls, but they did not get them.

Bentley — the defending district champion at 138 — led 4-3 after an escape with 1:45 left in the second period against Kettle Run’s Alex Smith (39-2). With 1:18 left a stoppage was called for what first seemed to be a case of Bentley being out-of-bounds. But a Kettle Run coach used that stoppage to argue he thought Smith controlled Bentley for a takedown. After the two officials conferred Smith was given two points and a 5-4 lead.

Bentley got an escape with 1:09 left in the third period to tie it, but Hall got around Bentley’s back and pulled him down for a takedown with 43 seconds left for a 7-5 lead. Hall went on win 10-5.

Mezzatesta said those matches were part of a rough day, one he expected to end with more than six regional qualifiers.

“Things just didn’t go our way,” Mezzatesta said. “Some days you’re the nail and some days you’re the hammer, and we were the nail more than the hammer today. We’ll be motivated by whatever our shortcomings were this week I hope. Kids wrestled really well in spots, but we weren’t consistent across the board.”

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