ORANGE — History repeated itself on Saturday, as James Wood High School wrestling won the Region 4D Championship for the second straight season.
The Colonels’ 231 points placed them 21 points ahead of second-place Salem. Sherando finished third with 190.5, Millbrook came in fourth with 175 and Handley placed seventh with 113.
Just like last winter, the Colonels will send 10 wrestlers to the Class 4 state tournament, which will be held at the Virginia Beach Sports Complex on Feb. 20-21. James Wood’s Hayden Black (113 pounds), Max Mooney (138) and Sean Hodel (165) each won individual region titles, while Owen Bond (106), Isaiah Hodel (126), Cash Keeler (132), Hayden Franks (144), Austin Noble (150), William Riley (157) and Jesse Woodson (175) all placed on the podium to advance, as the top four wrestlers from each weight class move on to states.
Colonels’ head coach Cory Crenshaw said his team’s support for one another has given the entire lineup confidence.
“We’re very fortunate to have the group of guys that we do, and they’re all very communicative together,” Crenshaw said. “And that’s all 14 guys that start for us this year. They’ve all been like that, nobody really down on each other, everybody working together, having fun, just being kids. The positive mentality that they bring, the support that they’re bringing to each other, that’s what makes it all the best, the way we’ve got it right now.”
Arguably the most important development for the Colonels on Saturday was Black’s return from an elbow injury. The junior had only wrestled 10 matches all season entering the region tournament, but looked sharp as ever by picking up two technical fall victories earlier in the day before winning the finals match against Charlottesville’s Adriel Peña via a 20-7 major decision.
Black said he didn’t want to use time off as an excuse and said he’s focused on winning his second straight state championship. He said the key to his recovery was his willingness to stay active and engaged.
“Just a lot of hoping and praying and a lot of conditioning,” Black said. “Staying active, movement, bloodflow and just keeping my spirits up.”
Crenshaw said Black was only cleared to return on Monday, so there was very limited ramp-up time.
“We’re very fortunate to get him back,” Crenshaw said. “He didn’t practice Monday, we didn’t practice him Tuesday or Wednesday, just to let him continue to try to rest that thing as much as possible. And we did a little bit of roll around Thursday and Friday, but that’s it. He’s really coming in here today, just going on natural ability.”
Mooney also displayed plenty of natural ability, pinning all four of his opponents on Saturday, including Sherando’s Colby Groce in the region title match. Mooney scored the fall over Groce 69 seconds into their match and spent less time on the mat during his first-round and quarterfinals matches. Although he needed 5:18 to secure the pin in the semifinals, he still led 7-0 at the time of the fall.
Mooney’s goal now shifts to winning his first career state championship. The senior said the key to his success this season has been staying positive.
“Just keeping it simple, scoring points, just having fun, doing what I love to do,” Mooney said. “It’s just a blessing to be able to do this. The whole day today, just staying upbeat and having a good mindset [helped me find success].”
Sean Hodel, another senior, is also targeting his first state championship. He’ll hope to build upon his success on Saturday, as he picked up a 17-1 technical fall win in the quarterfinals and a pinfall in 69 seconds in the semifinals before defeating Blacksburg’s Jackson Mann 5-2 in the title match.
Hodel had to take injury time late in the match due to lingering effects of an ankle sprain. Crenshaw said the recent snowstorm gave Hodel time to nurse the injury, but he’s still not 100% healed heading into the state tournament.
“That was his first regional title … his goal is to be on the podium [at states],” Crenshaw said. “It’s one of those things that you want to push these kids, you want to wrestle them every day, but he’s hurt, and he did what he had to today. So hopefully he keeps his spirits positive … he’s going to give us everything he’s got.”
Another James Wood wrestler with their eyes on a state title is Woodson, but he was unable to win the region title after Handley’s Thomas Thorpe defeated him for a third time this season.
Thorpe, who defeated Woodson 8-0 in the 175 title match, said he’d been focused on that match all week. He said finding the confidence in himself to get the job done wasn’t easy, but by the end of Saturday, he was fired up and ready to go.
“It was very stressful. I spent a lot of this week thinking about that match, a lot of this week studying this match,” Thorpe said. “I think it just took confidence … it’s just about clearing out my mind, clearing out my brain, knowing that I can compete with anybody as long as I give it my best effort. I was super stressed out for a lot of today, and I realized that attitude is not going to get me anywhere where I want to be. And if I want to be at the top of the podium, I have to believe I will be.”
Handley head coach Troy Mezzatesta has plenty of confidence in Thorpe and Jace Culotta, the Judges’ other region champion at 126. Culotta ended the day with a technical fall win and two major decision victories, including a 17-4 decision in the finals against Orange County’s Tre Antoine.
After a difficult end to Culotta and Thorpe’s 2025 seasons, Mezzatesta said he’s happy to see each of them well-positioned a year later.
“Both of those kids, this time last year, Jace had gone to the ER, he was that sick. Thomas was at home with a knee injury,” Mezzatesta said. “My heart’s full for those two guys, because this time last year I was just depressed for them. So I’m happy to see them on top of the podium. And that’s what should have happened last year, right? Never take it for granted.”
Beyond Thorpe and Culotta, Handley’s Alex Sardelis (120) and Carson Otto (157) also qualified for the state tournament.
Though Sherando’s 144-pounder Lucas Bauer was the only Warrior to win a region title on Saturday, the team will send seven wrestlers to Virginia Beach in two weeks.
Kayden Frock (106), Blake Kelly (120), Arya Rawat (132), Groce (138), Carter Straight (150) and Ethan Lane (190) all qualified for the state tournament. Sherando head coach Jim Straight said his team met the moment with its third-place finish.
“We were happy with seven [qualifiers]. Going into the tournament, if you would’ve told us seven, we would’ve been happy with that, although after it feels like we could’ve had nine,” Straight said. “So, a little disappointing for a couple of our guys. We’ve kind of hit the marks whenever we needed to at the end of the season here, and then we’ve still got states left in two weeks here. This was the one that we’ve been ramping up to for the whole year, and the guys wrestled well.”
Bauer defeated James Wood’s Hayden Franks via technical fall (18-3) at the 5:44 mark to win his bracket. He’d previously picked up a technical fall win in the quarterfinals and a pinfall win in the semifinals.
After the Warriors’ dual meet win over Handley, Straight said he expected Bauer to be a region champion, and those expectations became a reality on Saturday.
“It’s just a level of confidence with him. Whenever he’s confident in his shots and aggressive with his takedowns, he’s hard to beat,” Straight said. “With him having previous success against Franks, it gave him a lot of confidence going into that finals match for this regional and it showed.”
Millbrook mirrored Sherando with one region champion, as William Potter took care of business in the 190-pound bracket, defeating Charlottesville’s Roman Calvani via a 14-1 major decision in the finals. Calvani’s escape point was the only point scored against Potter all day, as the Pioneer picked up three pinfall wins on the way to the region title match.
“I feel great after today. I didn’t get a single offensive point scored on me,” Potter said. “[Calvani] is a good wrestler. He felt very solid, very strong. I went against him last year, so I was a little nervous going into that match. I don’t want to lose to somebody that I already beat. So I had even more of an incentive [to win].”
Potter was nearly joined atop the podium by teammate Asa Doyle-Naegeli, who fell to Amherst County’s Wyatt Seay in the 215-pound finals in a dramatic match.
Doyle-Naegeli tied the match at 1-1 in the third period. Neither wrestler scored in the first overtime period. This led to a second overtime period in which Seay started on the bottom and scored an escape point to go up 2-1 during the first 30-second increment. Doyle-Naegeli matched this during his 30 seconds, sending the match to a third overtime period.
There, Seay won the match 4-2 thanks to a reversal. Millbrook head coach Jeff Holmes said Doyle-Naegeli had a really good tournament and faced a difficult situation in a finals match that didn’t feature many attack attempts.
“I guess for me, it’s, I’m always all about pushing the pace and getting to leg attacks,” Holmes said. “Sometimes when you’re in those types of matches and you have two people that are close, sometimes it’s hard to get the feel. It’s just one of those things where you kind of leave it up to your guys to go out there and do what they do.”
Potter and Doyle-Naegeli will be joined at the state tournament by teammates Kenny Spaulding (126), Alex Stubblefield (144), Lane Williams (165), Tyler Kinsey (175) and William Aird (285).
“We haven’t had seven guys qualify for states in a long time,” Holmes said. “So the goal is to keep progressing. I think we have a solid team this year, I always have. Our goal is to peak at the right time. We’re feeling very confident that we’re in a good spot.”
— Contact Joe Tuman at jtuman@winchesterstar.com
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