Sherando rolls to Northwestern District wrestling title

STEPHENS CITY — No one would mistake what took place inside Sherando High School on Thursday as a dual meet, but the Warriors sure made it look like one at the end.

Sherando put 10 of its 14 wrestlers in the championship finals. With the Warrior wrestlers cheering behind them, the Sherando coaching staff got to set up camp in the same corner of the mat for eight straight finals matches from 120 to 170 pounds.

That firepower helped the Warriors build a 68-point lead after the consolation semifinals. Four wins in the finals (plus three more in the third- and fifth-place matches) completed a dominant 75.5-point win and gave Sherando its first postseason tournament championship since it won the Conference 21 title in 2014.

“It’s exciting,” said Sherando junior 145-pounder Keagan Judd, one of the Warriors’ champions, after posing for a photo with the championship trophy with his teammates. “We’ve been preaching all week that the guys need to go out there and do what we do.”

Warriors coach Brian Kibler said there was some uncertainty going into Thursday because illness, injuries and changing lineups throughout the district meant there could be a lot of first-time matchups.

But a Sherando team that beat each of its district foes in duals for a 6-0 record this year accomplished just about everything Kibler thought it could on Thursday. The top four wrestlers in each weight class advanced to next Saturday’s Region 4C tournament at Fauquier, and the Warriors will take 13 of their 14 wrestlers.

“With the exception of one or two matches, it played out the way I kind of thought it would play out,” Kibler said. “We kind of stay true to how we’ve performed. Even when things didn’t work our way, I still think we wrestled pretty well.”

Kibler said the Warriors wrestlers bring out the best in each other, and want the best for their teammates.

“This team, they go into the room, they push each other, they work hard. When their teammates are wrestling, they’re right there and behind each other,” Kibler said. “They’ve got a good mojo going as far as team camaraderie and all those things. It’s been fun. It’s really nice to go into a room, press go, and have them have good energy. They have the entire year, really.”

The Warriors scored 237 points to easily top runner-up Liberty (161.5). The Eagles were followed by James Wood (147 points, eight regional qualifiers, two champions), Kettle Run (137), Handley (134, seven qualifiers, two champs), Fauquier (122) and Millbrook (119, seven qualifiers, one champ).

Judd — a 2020 state champion at 113 pounds who did not get to wrestle in last year’s postseason with Frederick County not competing in the Virginia High School League postseason — had a particularly high-profile final. He took on Liberty’s Noah Hall, the defending Class 4 145-pound champion. The duo did not wrestle during the regular season.

After a scoreless first period, Judd picked up a penalty point for Hall’s locked hands and an escape for a 2-0 lead 25 seconds into the second period.

During a stoppage 16 seconds later, a Liberty coach loudly told Hall, “Six minutes of wrestling. [Judd’s] going to wrestle you, but he’s going to be dead tired.”

Judd heard the message. No one knew if the match would go six minutes, but Judd knew that Hall wasn’t going to wear him down.

“[Those words] were fueling me,” Judd said. “Once I got the first takedown, I was pretty set.”

Thirty-three seconds later, Judd got that takedown for a 4-0 lead. The rest of the second period and the entire third period featured Judd controlling and moving Hall around from the top position. Hall never really came close to getting an escape or reversal.

“I was looking forward to this [match,” Judd said. “It feels good [to win].”

Other Sherando champions were freshman Anthony Lucchiani (120), sophomore Zachary Hayes (138) and senior Aydan Willis (220). In the finals, Lucchiani pinned Handley freshman Nick Baker in 1:10, Hayes defeated Kettle Run’s Ryan Cruger 8-3 after building up an 8-1 lead with 40 seconds left in the second period; and Willis pinned Millbrook’s Ezra Doyle-Naegali in 1:03.

Falling in the finals for Sherando were Tyler Koerner at 126 (injury default to Liberty’s Foster Cardinale); Devin Hardy at 132 (6-1 to James Wood’s Braden Sitton); Brogan Teter at 152 (3-1 in overtime sudden victory to Fauquier’s Reece Kuhns); Michael Gause at 160 (pinned in 2:59 by Handley’s Simon Bishop); Brandon Blair at 170 (a 19-4 tech fall in 5:14 to Liberty’s Royce Hall) and Ethan Gonzalez at 285 (pinned in 2:46 by Millbrook’s Jett Helmut). Teter gave up a takedown 20 seconds into the overtime, and Kibler said Koerner forfeited as a precaution.

Other Sherando regional qualifers are Peter Richardson (third at 182), Zane Jenkins (third at 195) and Isaac Cram (fourth at 106).

“Up and down the lineup, we kind of hit the mark,” Kibler said. “It was good.”

Sitton pinned Hardy in their three previous matches this year, but points were hard to come by on Thursday. The duo barely made contact with each other in a scoreless first period, with Sitton saying Hardy closed off his stance more than previous matches.

There was contact with Hardy’s nose at one point in the first period that caused it to bleed. The match would go on to feature six stoppages to try and stop the blood. A black bandage was finally wrapped around Hardy’s head at the beginning of the third period.

Up 3-1 early in the third period, Sitton finally gave himself breathing room by picking Hardy up off the mat completely. After walking with Hardy briefly, he slowly dropped him to the mat for a three-point near fall to complete the scoring.

“Once I put him on his back, I felt pretty in control,” Sitton said. “I felt safe, because I was up by a good number of points. The only way he could have won is if he went big [with a move].”

James Wood freshman Colton Bendure also won his weight class, defeating Millbrook’s Elliot Rivera 11-5 in the 113 final. Bendure was able to cradle Rivera’s head from a standing position and drop him to the mat on his back with 50 seconds left in the first period for the match’s first five points.

Rivera had one of the more impressive wins of the tournament in the semifinals, beating 2021 106 state runner-up Christian Eberhart of Liberty by a 5-3 sudden victory overtime score to earn a season split of their matches.

Other James Wood regional qualifiers are third-place finishers Blake Messick (126), Dylan Tews (160), Ethan Sine (170) and Jack Thompson (285) and fourth-place finishers Connor Jordan (138) and Orion Cox (195).

“It was a pretty good showing as far as where we came in at with seeds and the way the brackets were looking last night,” said James Wood coach Cory Crenshaw, whose team had its first individual district champs since 2018. “I think a couple of guys really stepped up and kept wrestling hard to get in those third-fourth matches. Colton and Braden did a fantastic job all day. All of these guys did a fantastic job for themselves.”

In addition to Bishop, Handley also had freshman Hayden Thompson win a title. He defeated Kettle Run’s Nate Hardesty 5-1 in the 106 final. Thompson scored the first takedown with 20 seconds left in the first period. With the score 2-1, he finished things off with an escape and a takedown in the third period.

The younger brother of former Handley wrestler and current Shenandoah wrestler Hunter Thompson, Hayden came in expecting to make an immediate impact this year.

“My goal has always been to make it states,” Thompson said. “I’ve set that since last year. But coming into this year, I didn’t know how I was going to do [in district]. Once I started wrestling people during the season, I knew I had a good chance to win [district], and I’m hoping to make a states run.”

Hayden said he looks up to Hunter, and he’s driven to do even better than Hunter did in high school. Handley coach Troy Mezzatesta is definitely impressed with Hayden’s work ethic.

“He’s a kid that puts all the time in,” Mezzatesta said. “He leaves our practices and helps the youth Red Lion organization, goes over and does workouts with the Shenandoah team. That’s what you get when you put in the time. You get the results.”

In addition to its three finalists, Handley will also take four fourth-place finishers in Garrett Stickley (113), Logan Westfall (126), Raimel Almanzar (182) and Quinton Mudd (215) to the region tournament.

“We always say ‘finish higher than your seed,’ and we had some kids that did that, and then we had some kids who didn’t finish as high as they should have,” Mezzatesta said. “That was disappointing, because I know how hard they work. I feel like we should have done better, but overall, half your team moving on is a pretty decent job most years.”

Helmut only beat Gonzalez 1-0 in their first matchup. After a scoreless first period on Friday, Helmut started on bottom in the second period and came out with the pin after rolling from under Gonzalez, then rolling on top.

This is the first year that Helmut is getting to show what he can do as a starter in a full wrestling season, and with a 25-3 record, he’s made a huge impact. Helmut said the support he’s been given from numerous people has made it possible.

“I think my teammates, my family and my coaches have really helped,” Helmut said. “They’ve pushed me a lot this year.”

In addition to the three finalists, Millbrook will send third-place finishers Matthew Topham (132) and Seth Cabellero (152) and fourth-place finishers Isaac Churchill (120) and Jason Coleman (170) to regionals.

“I think this was a great effort,” Millbrook coach Jeff Holmes said. “On paper, I was thinking we’d get six to regionals, and we’ve got seven and an alternate. I brought 10 guys, so seven out of 10 isn’t too bad. We’re progressing well. We talked at the beginning of the year about progress over perfection. I’ve got a relatively inexperienced team. But they’re good kids, and they’ve been working hard.

“Jett has been wrestling great. He’s a competitor and he wants to win, and he finds ways to win. I’m happy for him and proud of him.”

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