Region 4C Wrestling Tournament

BEALETON — During an interview on Saturday, one of the first comments that Sherando freshman Keagan Judd made was that it was unfortunate he only got to wrestle once in the Region 4C tournament prior to taking the mat for the 113-pound championship bout.

Once the finals started, Judd didn’t waste any time showing the skills and desire that has him on the brink of an unprecedented accomplishment at Sherando.

Judd took down Tuscarora junior Bobby Philpot 10 seconds into the match and was awarded two near-fall points at the end of the first period for a 4-0 lead, and he went on to earn the area’s only weight class championship on Saturday with a 9-4 win at Liberty High School.

“In the [Sherando] wrestling room, there’s boards with region, district and state champion,” said Judd, who improved to 29-2. “I just want to fill every single one of those slots my freshman year, break some records, and win states hopefully.”

No freshman has ever won a state title at Sherando.

Judd will be joined next Friday and Saturday at the Class 4 state tournament at Tuscarora High School in Leesburg by 14 other wrestlers from the local high schools.

Sherando (five state qualifiers) placed third out of 15 teams with 96 points. James Wood (three) was fourth with 93 points, Handley (five) was seventh with 80 and Millbrook (two) was 13th with 34 points. Defending champion Fauquier was first with 186.5 points and Liberty was second with 180.5.

Judd (9-2) won his quarterfinals match 9-3 over Loudoun County’s Bryson Rios, then went nearly 10 hours without wrestling a match. His semifinal opponent, Heritage’s Zachary Maisus, forfeited the match.

His finals match came against a familiar opponent in Tuscarora junior Bobby Philpot, a Region 5C champion at 106 pounds last year.

Judd beat Philpot 12-5 in the semifinals of the Millbrook at Mayhem tournament last month. Judd wasn’t exactly looking for a repeat performance, though. Philpot had the first takedown in that match.

“I was aggressive going in,” Judd said. “I knew I had to score the first two.”

“Getting that [takedown] out of the way early, letting him know, ‘I am still better than you,’ that type of mentality really pushed him through that [match],” Sherando coach Brian Kibler said.

Judd said it was also big to get two near-fall points after hooking both of Philpott’s arms to go up 4-0.

Philpot began to attack in the second period, but Judd never let him build momentum.

Philpot had a takedown with 15 seconds left in the second period to make it 4-2, but Judd had an escape six seconds later. With the score 6-2 in the third, Philpot had another takedown, but within 12 seconds Judd had an escape and takedown to go up 9-4 and complete the scoring with 1:05 left in the match.

Kibler said he would have liked to have seen Judd get the first takedown of the third period, but he gave Judd credit for doing what he needed to do to close out the match.

“He seems locked in,” Kibler said. “... He’s comfortable in what he’s doing. That’s all you can really ask for at this time of year — have a good mentality.”

Freshman Brogan Teter (132 pounds, 30-11) and junior Heath Rudolph (145, 32-6) each took second for Sherando after losing in the finals.

At the Class 4 Northwestern District semifinals last week, Teter fell behind Liberty freshman Colin Dupill 11-0, but Teter rallied to pin Dupill with three seconds left in the second period.

On Saturday, Dupill — who knocked off Northwestern District champion Mac Gordon of Handley 3-0 in the semifinals — built up a 5-0 lead on Teter and did not let it go to waste, pinning him 42 seconds into the second period.

“[Dupill] is super tough,” Kibler said.

Rudolph had a rematch of the Northwestern District finals with Liberty’s Jovon Mitchell.

Mitchell won 13-2 last week after building up a 4-0 lead after one period and 9-1 edge after two, but Rudolph battled Mitchell tougher on Saturday. The first period was scoreless, and it wasn’t until there was 1:14 left in the second period when Mitchell went low on Rudolph’s legs and lifted Rudolph up and back to the mat for the match’s first takedown to make it 3-0. Rudolph scored all of his points in a 7-3 loss on third period escapes, the last two coming after Mitchell takedowns.

“We closed the gap,” Kibler said. “We got better, but obviously, there’s still ways to go.”

Sherando will also send freshman Tyler Koerner (23-7, fourth at 106 pounds) and senior Colton Foltz (26-13, fourth at 182) to the state tournament. The Warriors had nine wrestlers entered.

Kibler was particularly pleased to see Foltz make the state tournament for the first time in his last opportunity. Foltz won 11-3 in the consolation semifinals over Dominion’s Jacob Jimenez to advance.

“Obviously, that was pretty special,” Kibler said. “In the consolation semifinals he wrestled one of the better matches I’ve ever seen him wrestle.”

Sophomore Aydan Willis was the district runner-up at 220 last week but was unable to participate Saturday because of the flu.

James Wood will send three wrestlers to the state tournament. Junior Chris Nuss (29-4) placed second at 138 pounds, junior Aidan Barton (20-11) placed third at 126 and senior Matt Alderman (30-7) placed third at 145.

In the 138 final, Nuss faced a frequent foe in Fauquier’s Gino Carmarca. Nuss said the duo has faced each other seven times in the past two seasons. Nuss went 1-2 against Camarca last year and evened the series with a 4-2 win in a dual match on Jan. 15.

But Camarca has beaten Nuss three times since and pinned Nuss for the second straight week on Saturday. Last week Camarca was up 2-0 when he pinned Nuss 43 seconds into the second period of the Northwestern District final, and on Saturday Camarca led 9-1 with 16 seconds left in the match.

“I tried to not tie up with him as much because he’s super aggressive with his hands,” said Nuss, who lost 8-0 to Camarca on Jan. 25 at the John Champe Cancer Classic. “He’s very physical, and I’m more a slow-paced guy. When I get someone that comes at me with that type of speed, it’s kind of like my brain disappears.

“When I set the pace, I feel like I’m in control and usually win. The majority of the time whoever gets the first takedown can set the pace, and he did that today. And wrestling the same guy, it’s hard to find new ways to score. You know that they’ve watched your video at least 10 times before you’ve wrestled.”

Crenshaw said he was pleased for Nuss and his fellow state qualifiers. Barton beat Liberty’s Austin Harris by fall in consolation semis to make the state tournament, avenging a regular-season loss to Harris.

“I’m proud Matt got through senior year,” Crenshaw said. “This is a kid that never made regionals before. This year he came in with a new attitude. He got himself in a good situation this weekend and outwrestled his opponent in some tough matches.

“Aidan was going to be toss-up for us. In order to make states, he was going to have to beat somebody he lost to, and not only did he beat him, but he controlled him.”

Crenshaw said the Colonels might have qualified six of their eight wrestlers had some matches worked out a little differently. Junior Joey Vitola (sixth in Class 4 at 152 pounds last year) came agonizingly close to punching his ticket to states twice.

In the semifinals, he led 6-4 but gave up a takedown in the final seconds to Tuscarora’s Nate Swank to send the match to overtime. Swank then got a takedown with two seconds left in the first overtime session to win 8-6. In the consolation semis, Vitola was up 5-0, but Culpeper County’s A.J. Marshall rallied for a 10-5 win.

Senior Paul Ebersole did not get a chance to qualify for the state tournament at 182 pounds. Crenshaw said Ebersole was in a car accident on Monday. Crenshaw said Ebersole is relatively OK health-wise, but he was banged up enough that the Colonels didn’t think he was healthy enough to wrestle.

Handley qualified five of its six wrestlers. Freshman Kingsley Menifee (39-6) placed second at 182 pounds; sophomore Cam Gordon (40-8) was third at 106; junior Mac Gordon (23-2) was third at 132; senior Hunter Thompson (42-6) was fourth at 160; and freshman Rodd’Ney Davenport (25-12) was fourth at 220.

Menifee once again had his work cut out for him in the finals. After losing to three-time state champ and Virginia Tech signee Sam Fisher by a 20-5 tech fall in 4:03 last week’s district finals, he fell 23-8 in 5:10 on Saturday.

The main thing was that he got to the final. That was in doubt when he found himself trailing 7-4 in the third period of Saturday’s semifinals against Dominion’s Jacob Jimenez. But an escape and takedown tied it at 7 with 1:18 left, and Menifee eventually secured his pin with 57 seconds left in the match.

“I knew I had to get a big move,” Menifee said. “I wasn’t really nervous, more anxious to get the points.”

Handley coach Troy Mezzatesta said Menifee definitely has poise.

“He’s a freshman, but he’s been wrestling from an early age,” Mezzatesta said. “He sticks with it, he’s tough, he’s tenacious, he’s always giving his best effort, and he’s wise.”

Menifee said he’s learned a lot from his matches with Fisher, like learning how to move his feet more. The bottom line is that he couldn’t ask for much more this year — he was the only freshman in the 182-pound class Saturday.

“I’m very pleased with what I’ve done this year,” Menifee said.

Mezzatesta said it was great to get five of his six wrestlers through, especially since four of them rebounded from semifinal losses with consolation semifinal wins. Sophomore heavyweight Noah Johnson almost joined them at the state tournament but couldn’t hold on after starting strong in his semifinal and consolation semifinal matches.

Thompson is going to the state tournament for the first time.

“I’m so happy for him,” Mezzatesta said. “This is a great region, so he has a great opportunity for next week.”

Mezzatesta said Mac Gordon is still getting used to endurance of six-minute matches after returning from six-week absence last week, so he hopes having three matches go the distance Saturday will put him in good shape for next week.

Millbrook is sending sophomore Matthew Topham (27-16, fourth at 113 pounds) and senior Jose Cruz Ramirez (26-23, fourth at 138) to the state tournament. Topham won his consolation semifinal 4-2 on a takedown with 40 seconds left after beating Devin Burrow of Liberty 6-4 in last week’s district tournament. Ramirez pinned Dulles champion Santiago Pena of Dominion to open the tournament. He gave up the first takedown of his consolation semi but came back to win by pin in 3:42.

“[Ramirez] came ready to wrestle,” Millbrook coach Jeff Holmes said. ‘[Pena] was a tough kid and pinned him. He did what he needed to do at the times he needed to do it. He wrestled well today.

“[Burrows] is probably someone as equal as a level as Matthew, and sometimes it’s tough to beat those types of kids two weeks in a row. He did that. It was good. He stayed focused and he wrestled to score points.”

Senior Daniel Flores placed sixth in the state at 220 pounds last year but could not advance Saturday, placing fifth at 195. He had Liberty’s Wyheem Vessels on the ropes at the end of the consolation semis but couldn’t quite get the takedown of Vessels, who was hopping around with Flores having control of one of his legs.

“I thought he wrestled well, he just couldn’t score in certain positions,” Holmes said. “It’s tough for him, but he’ll do great things in other ways.”

Sophomore Elliott Rivera (106) was unable to compete because of a high-ankle sprain suffered at the district tournament.

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