Wood's Henry and Black, Handley's Culotta capture titles at Walters/Copp tourney

WINCHESTER — James Wood wrestling is back in Black at 106 pounds this year, and the Colonels’ 157-pounder continues to introduce opponents to pin city.

Saturday’s Willie Walters/Jaye Copp Tournament was missing some local star power due to a variety of reasons. But freshman Hayden Black — the younger brother of two-time state champion and 2017 James Wood graduate Aaron Black — and junior Aiden Henry emerged to earn the first tournament championships of their Colonels careers.

The duo led the Colonels to a tie for third place with Handley with 151 points in the 14-team tournament. Freshman Jace Culotta, one of four finalists for the Judges, won at 113 pounds in the first bracket-style tournament of his high school career.

Fairfax — whose head coach is former Handley star Lio Quezada — scored 244 points to win by 58 over runner-up Loudoun County (186). Sherando — which had four wrestlers in the Beast of the East tournament at the University of Delaware this weekend — placed fifth with 138 points.

Henry is in his third year of starting for the Colonels. Though he didn’t post a winning record in either of his first two seasons, he did tie for fifth on the team with 18 pins while posting a 23-25 record at 150 pounds last year.

After a first round bye, on Saturday he pinned all three of his opponents to improve to 13-6 for the season with eight pins. His last fall came in the third period with 1:08 remaining against Bishop Ireton senior Calvin Hall with a 9-4 advantage.

“I’m just working on top, being aggressive, just trying to be explosive,” Henry said.

Henry powered his way to a 5-0 lead with a takedown and three near-fall points 40 seconds into the match, but 20 seconds later his lead was sliced to 5-4 as a result of Hall’s reversal and two near fall points. Henry managed a reversal at the 45-second mark of the first period for a 7-4 lead, then stayed on top for the rest of the period.

“That scramble was heart-stopping, but I’m glad I got the end of it,” Henry said.

Henry rode out Hall from the top position in the second period. In the third, Henry got a reversal with 1:22 left, then recorded his pin 14 seconds later.

“Once I got on top of him, I put the bar in and I ran it, and I hoped for the best and pinned him,” Henry said. “[Winning this tournament] is a good start. Hopefully, I can keep going.”

James Wood coach Cory Crenshaw said he’s been impressed with Henry all season. Henry only went 4-4 at last week’s Battle of the Boro Tournament in Boonsboro, Md., but Crenshaw liked how he bounced back this week.

“He’s putting in a great effort in the practice room and working hard,” Crenshaw said. “Over the summer he put in a lot of work, going around and wrestling at some offseason events. Those things are showing.”

Black (17-2) also had a first-round bye and won his quarterfinal match by fall, but his semifinal match went down to the wire against Handley sophomore Alex Sardelis (17-3). Black defeated Sardelis 9-1 on Dec. 6 in a dual match, but the two were scoreless until the third period on Friday. Black recorded a reversal with 1:13 left and made that score stand up for a 2-0 win.

In the championship match against Fairfax junior Johann Jose, Black trailed 1-0 after giving up an escape 25 seconds into the second period. He took the lead for good with a takedown with 35 seconds left in the second.

After that, it was all Black. Jose was penalized for unnecessary roughness at the 1:10 mark while in the top position and he then conceded an escape to put Black up 4-1. Black took him down 18 seconds later for a 6-1 lead en route to a 6-2 victory.

“I knew the kid was bigger and stronger,” Black said. “I kind of had to be careful and back up in situations, and certain opportunities I went behind [him for points].”

At 98 pounds, Crenshaw noted that Black is at a weight deficit in most of his matches, but he’s more than holding his own. Black had two second-place finishes in tournaments coming into Saturday.

Black feels his quickness makes a difference, as well as his lifting routine and eating healthy.

“It all comes down to his technique, his physicality, making sure he’s doing what needs to be done,” Crenshaw said. “He can’t really make mistakes that other kids might be able to do. He’s done well for himself so far this year.”

James Wood was without a few of its starters on Saturday, including its two returning state place winners due to illness in junior James Battulga (now at 150 this year) and sophomore Max Mooney (now at 120).

The Colonels had a pretty strong alternative at 150 on Saturday, though. Freshman Jesse Woodson won two matches by major decision and his semifinal by fall before losing in the championship match in 2:30 to Loudoun County freshman Rocco Zagorites.

At a tournament at Woodbridge High School to open the season, Woodson wrestled as an alternate at 150 pounds and placed fifth while Battulga took third.

“The stuff that we’re telling the kids to work on in the room in practice are things we saw out of him today,” Crenshaw said. “That’s a big step for a kid who’s a freshman. He’s recognizing things that he can improve on, and if he gets the opportunity like he did today, he can capitalize on that. He did a fantastic job working his way to that final.”

The Colonels also were led by Sean Hodel (third at 144), Sean Merryman (fourth at 132), Orion Cox (fourth at 190) and Blake Tidwell (fifth at 175).

“The kids that placed for us, those are kids we were expecting to do well today,” Crenshaw said. “The other kids wrestled hard and did the best they could for themselves, and that’s all we can ask for.”

Handley’s Culotta (18-1) received a forfeit win in the first round. He earned a 5-3 decision over George C. Marshall’s Joshua Levy (he took the lead for good at 4-3 with a reversal with eight seconds left in the first period), won 4-0 over Sherando’s Damien Costello in the semifinals (he had takedowns in the first 30 seconds of the first and second periods) before pinning Amherst County senior John Brunner, a state qualifier last year, in 1:09 in the final.

Culotta said he wasn’t sure if he was going to wrestle at all on Saturday because of an injury he suffered on Thursday. Culotta said it started bothering him quite a bit in the semifinals, which prevented him from making any aggressive moves while he was on bottom for the entire third period.

Fortunately, he didn’t have to stay on the mat too long in the championship. Culotta got a takedown 32 seconds into the match to set up his pin against Brunner, who Handley coach Troy Mezzatesta noted was at least half a foot taller than the 5-foot-5 Culotta.

“He had pretty long arms,” Culotta said. “I knew he was probably trying to get an ankle pick on me or something like that. I had to keep my distance and get in on a shot. The big help was me getting on the high crotch for the takedown, and then my arm bar to pin him. It feels pretty good to [win this tournament].”

Mezzatesta said Culotta definitely deserved the title because of how hard he works.

“He seeks out advice from Nick [Baker] and those guys who have a ton of experience,” Mezzatesta said. “He just wrestles really tough and physical for a young wrestler.

“Sometimes young kids, the first finals [in high school], they have all the butterflies, and the moment’s tough for them. But he went out there and just kind of dominated the kid. It was super impressive. We were joking we going to start calling him the New Italian Stallion. I’m super happy for him.”

Senior Nick Baker (132 pounds) was one of four Handley wrestlers who lost championship matches.

Saturday was only the second competition for Baker, the state runner-up at 132 last year, this season after missing several months due to injury. Baker typically starts periods fast and he did so again in Saturday’s 132 championship match against Loudoun County’s Lincoln Kelly, getting a takedown 14 seconds in and following quickly with three near-fall points for a 5-0 lead.

Baker would not score again, however. He gave up a reversal 31 seconds into the second period to make it 5-2, and about a minute later Kelley secured Baker’s right leg and cradled him for a pin. Baker — who pinned his first two opponents — also got caught in a cradle late in his semifinal match, but didn’t get turned and held on for a 3-2 win.

“We were up 5-0, and we kind of wrestled a little bit defensively, not how we came out aggressive early on,” Mezzatesta said. “We jammed a deep underhook, and that was something we did in the state finals and got dumped a couple of times. The kid hit a great cradle. These are things you want to be able to work on now. You’d rather something like this happen here than in a regional final.

“It stings for him, but it’s a good sting. We’ll use it for motivation.”

While Baker was wrestling on at Mat 1, junior teammate Hayden Thompson (18-1) was wrestling simultaneously on Mat 2 in the championship round. Thompson (sixth in Class 4 at 120 last year) pinned each of his first three opponents at 138 but couldn’t find any offense in the 138 final against South Lakes’ Aiden Sanders.

Sanders hit a takedown just before the first-period buzzer. Thompson got an escape 20 seconds into the third period to make it 2-1, but that ended the scoring. Sanders was able to control Thompson’s left leg for the last 30 seconds to keep him from scoring.

“I just had to be on my offense more,” said Thompson, who fell 2-0 to Sanders at last year’s Judges Invitational.

Handley sophomore Thomas Thorpe (18-1) also lost a tight match at 175 pounds in the finals.

He won his first two matches by fall, beat Tidwell 4-0 in the semifinals, then was tied with Fairfax’s Mohammad Elhajj 1-1 early in the third period. Elhajj got around Thorpe’s back for a takedown with one minute left for a 3-1 lead. After an escape, Thorpe dove low to try and get the winning points, but Elhajj was ready and took Thorpe down to make it 5-2 with 39 seconds left. Elhajj won 5-3.

Sardelis placed fourth at 106 for Handley. Also for the Judges, Marvin Rivera placed fifth at 285 and Duncan Hesler was sixth at 144. Charlie Milam (150/157) continues to miss time with an injury.

Sherando was without five of the six people who went 8-0 at the previous weekend’s Andrew Kenney Memorial Tournament in Stephens City. Three of them were among the four wrestlers at the Beast of the East (138-pounder and two-time state champion Anthony Lucchiani, who placed fifth, was one of them), Jake Dann participated in Saturday’s Coaches USA All-Star Series football game at Bridgewater College, and Calden Sommerfield was ill.

Still, the Warriors had six wrestlers place third or fourth on Saturday, an example of their overall talent and depth. Sherando is 11-0 in duals this season.

The Warriors were led by third-place finishers Kaden Frock (106), Braeden Estep (157) and Judson Dean (190), fourth-place finishers Costello (113), Colby Groce (120) and Ben Taylor (175), and Caden Long (fifth at 150).

“Braeden Estep cuts down from 165 to 157 and ends getting third in Zane Jenkins’ place (who at the Beast),” Sherando coach Brian Kibler said. “I told the guys it’s a great weekend for opportunity, because everybody’s wrestling somewhere.”

Overall, Kibler has liked the way his team has performed this year, but saw things Saturday that can improve.

“We were a little lazy with our legs and just not forcing action [today],” Kibler said. “Not meeting pressure with pressure. That was a little bit glaring, especially in the middle of the day. It got better toward the end.

“As the season goes on, the competition is going to go up. If we answer the bell every week, we’ll be happy.”

Fairfax’s 215-pound champion Harry Maltese earned Most Outstanding Wrestler honors. He pinned all four of his opponents in 2:23 or less.

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