The Robinson Secondary School wrestling team saw seven wrestlers earn individual titles at last weekend’s Concorde District championships, which took place Feb. 4-5 at Centreville High School.
Robinson, in the team standings, finished second place overall with 219 points, behind first place Westfield (225.5). Taking third place was Chantilly High (119), which finished ahead of fourth place Oakton (94), fifth place Centreville (67) and sixth place Herndon (22).
Robinson’s champions were Wes Jones (160 weight class), Zak DePasquale (145), Brooks Martino (135), Santiago Valdez (130), Jack Bass (125), Jake Smith (119) and Lucas Sodergren (103).
Jones, the top seed at 160, was an 8-2 finals winner over Centreville No. 3-seed Ryan Sepulveda. He had reached the title match with a semifinals pin win over Chantilly’s Joe Scholnick.
DePasquale, the top seed at 145, edged Westfield No. 3-seed Nick Lehman, 7-6, in the championship match. Earlier, DePasquale had beaten Oakton’s Roscoe Davis by technical fall in a semifinals match.
In the 135 finals, Martino, Robinson’s top seed, earned a late match pin win over Westfield No. 2-seed Frank Aiello. Martino had reached the title match with a semifinals technical fall win over Oakton’s Luis Rivera.
At 130, Valdez, the No.1-seed, bested No. 3-seed Stephen Aiello of Westfield, 7-3, in the championship match. Valdez made it to the title round with a 15-3 semifinals victory over Oakton’s AJ Duston.
Fifth seeded Bass of Robinson won matches over both Thomas Price of Oakton and No. 2-seed Derek Arnold of Westfield, 7-0, to reach the finals against Chantilly’s Ryland Arnold. Bass continued his stellar district showing by defeating the top seeded Arnold by pin in the championship match.
At 119, Smith, the No. 2-seed, was victorious over Westfield top seed Dennon Carranza-Kee, 6-0, in the finals. Smith had beaten Chantilly’s Kyle Smith in the semifinals on a pin.
At 103, Robinson’s Sodergren, the top seed, was an 8-3 finals winner over Westfield’s David Aiello. He had reached the title match by pinning Herndon’s Jared Nielsen in the semifinals.
<b>ROBINSON</b> second place finishers at districts were Jake Pinkston (heavyweight), Tim Fitzpatrick (171), and Shon Topper (140).
Pinkston lost a hard-contested heavyweight finals match, 5-3, to Westfield No. 1-seed Tyler DeLeon. The No. 2-seed, Pinkston reached the finals with a semifinals pin win over Chantilly’s Ian Schircliff.
Fitzpatrick, the No. 2-seed at 171, lost his finals match to top seed Bernabe Mejia of Chantilly. He had beaten Oakton’s Josh Newman by pin in a semifinals match.
Topper, Robinson’s 140 finalist, lost a 13-3 finals match to Westfield top seed Beau Donahue. Topper, the No. 2-seed, defeated Oakton No. 3-seed Albert Borges, 5-2, in the semifinals.
Robinson’s Dallas Smith finished third place at 112 weight class. The No. 5-seed going into districts, Smith won his opening round match over Chantilly’s Ali Nadri by pin, then lost to eventual champion and top seed Brett Campbell of Westfield, 2-1. That put Smith in the loser’s bracket where he defeated Centreville’s Joey Nowak by pin before also beating Herndon No. 3-seed Gabe Pike, 14-2, for third place.
Other place finishers for the Rams were John Buono (189) and Daniel Mika (152), both fourth place finishers.
The Northern Region Championships will take place this Thursday through Saturday (Feb. 10-12) at Fairfax High School.