Swartz, Woodall leave as champs

By Robert Niedzwiecki
The Winchester Star

SALEM — On a day that began with Gage Swartz screaming, it was his wordless actions at the end that spoke so much louder.

The James Wood High School senior kick-started a night in which three local wrestlers won Group AA state titles with a 6-2 win over two-time state champion Neal Kennedy of Blacksburg Saturday at the Salem Civic Center.

It took only a moment after the referee blew his final whistle for everyone in the arena to see how badly Swartz wanted that moment.

The emotion that came with years of hard work, including the two years of postseason agony that pushed Swartz even harder this year in pursuit of his first state title, was written all over his scrunched-up face as he pointed to his family in his crowd. No tears fell, but it would have been understandable if they did after the 196th and most meaningful victory of his career.

“This is the easily the best feeling I’ve ever had,” said Swartz, taking quick breaths and speaking slowly out of excitement a few minutes after his win. “I put so much into getting this. I’ve been training for four years to get this. To finally get it my senior year means so much to me.” James Wood’s Austin Woodall (285 pounds) and Sherando’s Nick Bakos (171) also saw four years of effort culminate in a state title in their senior years Saturday.

It was a particularly big day for the Colonels. Not only did they have two individual champions for what coach Greg Walker believes is the first time in school history, they also had the best performance among Northwestern District schools.

Wood (four state placers overall) finished sixth with 65 points to edge Millbrook (seventh place, 64 points) and Sherando (eighth, 62.5). Handley tied for 45th with four points.

The Pioneers had three wrestlers place in the top eight, the Warriors had four, and the Judges didn’t have any.

Christiansburg won its ninth consectutive state title with 175 points, edging out Grundy (166).

Christiansburg trailed by 7.5 points heading into the finals, but won four titles to Grundy’s one. The Blue Demons can thank Swartz (47-6), who knocked out Grundy’s Jeremy Hurley in the semifinals.

Of course, in Swartz’s mind, no one was going to stand in his way at this year’s state tournament. Not after what he had been through.

As a sophomore, Swartz said he “choked” at the state tournament, losing in the quarterfinals and finishing third.

Worse, he had to wait two years for redemption. He didn’t get a chance to wrestle in Salem last year after breaking his left elbow in the Region II tournament.

Though Kennedy was a two-time champion, Swartz felt if he won his match against Hurley — a state finalist in 2008 who finished third at 119 pounds last year — he could win the title. Hurley beat Kennedy in the Region IV final.

The two battled through two scoreless periods in the semifinals before Swartz, who was in the down position, broke through with a penalty point assessed to Hurley for locking his hands nine seconds into the final period. Hurley then had to cut Swartz loose for an escape point.

Despite the vocal support from the Grundy fans, Hurley couldn’t get anything going against Swartz, and the match ended with Swartz on top 2-0, raising his hands, screaming “Yeah!” repeatedly, and pumping his fists.

“That was good for him,” Walker said. “The kid from Grundy was a tough kid. [Swartz] wrestled smart. He stayed in good position and he came up 2-0. Once he got up we knew he’d be OK. Some kids wrestle not to lose, but Gage wrestles to win nonstop.”

Swartz carried that approach into the final, taking a 2-0 lead after one period and a 5-0 lead after two en route to the win.

After Swartz pointed to his family and hugged the coaches he credited with staying on him every day, he went into the stands and hugged his father Terry. Again, they didn’t exchange any words, because nothing needed to be said.

“He just knew everything I wanted to do, and he knows everything I’ve done,” said Swartz, who will attend West Virginia University on an academic scholarship next year and hopes to make the Mountaineers varsity wrestling team within a couple of years. “When I’ve made sacrifices, he was there with me and made them with me.”

Swartz discussed a number of things he did in the offseason to prepare, including going to Gettysburg, Pa., on Sundays to work out with Chris Haines, his former Millbrook Madmen wrestling coach and the former coach at Millbrook High School.

Mostly, Swartz talked about his weightlifting. During the six months he was barred from wrestling after his surgery, it was about the only thing he could do.

He lifted weights in the mornings before school and during the summer and improved his bench press to 200 pounds at one point after topping out at 140 pounds last year. Swartz said his improved strength made a big difference this year, and in Salem it helped him prove what his mind and heart already knew.

“I knew coming into this tournament I was the best wrestler here,” Swartz said. “I worked harder than everybody else. I just had to have my head on straight and wrestle to what I was capable of. I looked at it more as my tournament to lose instead of my tournament to win.”

Before the season even began, Walker thought the state tournament would be Woodall’s for the taking, too. Woodall (54-5) placed fourth at heavyweight last year, and the three who placed ahead of him were all seniors.

Woodall wrestled like the favorite he was all year, but at 2 a.m. last Monday morning, he was dealt a surprising overtime defeat by Monticello’s Tim Rollins, a wrestler Woodall had beaten for the regional title a year earlier. A half-hour late,r Walker said the loss might have been a good thing in terms of motivation for the state tournament.

After Woodall pinned his way to the state championship, finishing it off with a victory over New Kent’s Evan Canady in 2:45, it was clear Woodall was as hungry as he’d ever been. None of his matches lasted into the third period.

“I was kind of disappointed [Rollins lost in the semifinals],” Woodall said. “After last week, I kind of wanted a rematch.”

Woodall said that, had he won last week, he might have come in too confident because of how difficult Region II is for heavyweights, with seven of the state’s top eight wrestlers.

“That loss in the finals against Rollins just drove me so much more to win,” he said. “So I guess that was a good thing.”

Canady was no doubt motivated to face Woodall after losing to him in the final of James Wood’s Willie Walters tournament, but after Woodall earned the match’s first point with an escape to start the second period, it wasn’t long before Woodall dropped him and began tilting his head and shoulders to the mat.

Woodall’s win proved he had come a long way from his freshman and sophomore years, when he couldn’t even qualify for the Region II tournament.

“If you had seen Austin the first day he walked in the wrestling room [as a freshman] ...” Walker said. “It’s a huge difference now. He didn’t know anything about wrestling, and here we are today.”

For Walker, Saturday was indeed a great day. Also placing were senior Seth Fauver (sixth at 171, 32-13) and freshman Taylor Swartz (seventh at 103, 37-11). The Colonels qualified fewer wrestlers than any district team for Region II, but Walker said this weekend’s performance is a tribute to his assistants and a schedule that takes James Wood to places like Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware in addition to tough tournaments in Virginia.

“Two state championships is awesome, and then to beat Millbrook and Sherando is great, too,” Walker said.

Millbrook was tied for fifth after the first day, but the Pioneers only picked up three wins Saturday. Senior Tanner Sine (46-7) finished second after losing to Poquoson’s Thomas Payne 10-4 in the 103-pound final, sophomore Joe Jessen (40-8) took second after losing to Fluvanna County’s Willie Crawford 5-1 in the 189-pound final, and junior John Sharp (48-10) placed sixth at 160.

Sine rallied from a 5-0 deficit to make the score 5-4 with 1:09 left in the third, but Payne scored a reversal with 40 seconds to grab the momentum back.

“I felt like I was doing OK,” said Sine, a first-year starter. “I guess I just didn’t get in the right position at the right time.

“It was still a great year. I know I gave it my all.”

In addition to Bakos, who won his first state title after taking third at 171 pounds last year, the Warriors had senior Baxter Newman (35-4) place second after losing 7-5 to Salem’s Jake Semones in the 215-pound final and had senior Levi McDonald (43-15) place sixth at 125 pounds and senior Cody Mead (34-15) place seventh at 140.

Sherando coach Pepper Martin said he was proud of Newman, who helped make this the first year in school history that Sherando had two state finalists.

“For as far he’s come in the short period of time he’s wrestled, he’s got nothing to be ashamed of,” Martin said of the third-year wrestler and second-year starter. “Some wrestlers wrestle since they’re 5 or 6, and they never get to where he’s got to. That’s a tribute to his hard work.”