The Northern Virginia Wresting Classic, the local high school early season showcase event, was held Dec. 10-11 at Fairfax High School.
Thirty-one teams, most from within the Northern Virginia area, participated in the early season tournament. The team champion, for the second straight year, was Westfield High School, which accumulated 271.50 points and had 12 individual place finishers (top eight). Fauquier (Warrenton) and South County Secondary finished second and third, respectively, with 253 and 168. North Stafford (139.50) finished fourth, Annandale (117) was fifth and Chantilly (115.50) garnered sixth place. Rounding out the top 10 teams were seventh place Lake Braddock (112), eighth place Edison (105), ninth place Bishop Ireton of Alexandria (100) and 10th place South Lakes (95).
Other local team finishes included 11th place Fairfax (90), and 13th place Marshall (84). W.T. Woodson (73) finished 15th, while Centreville High, Madison and Bishop O’Connell (Arlington) finished in a three-way tie for 17th place with 70 points each.
South County’s Scott Blackstone went 5-0 to win first place at 189 weight class.
Blackstone, in the finals, defeated Oakton’s Austin Murga in overtime, 4-2. A second place finisher for the Stallions was Keegan Sullivan (152-division). Other place finishers for third place South County were: Austin Musfeldt (4th place at 171); Zach Ayres (5th place at heavyweight); Brett Stein (5th place at 140); Hunter Manley (5th place at 103); and Tyler Howard (8th place at 135).
Lake Braddock’s strong seventh place team showing was fueled by three third place individual finishes, those coming from Cory Smith (171), Jake Sage (140) and Rory Renzi (135). Smith, in his third place match at 171, defeated Austin Musfeldt of South County, by fall at 3 minutes, 17 seconds. Sage, in his third place match at 140, defeated Ireton’s Ricky Baier, 3-1. And Renzi, at the 135 consolation finals, bested Westfield’s Frank Aiello by major decision, 11-2.
Other place finishers for the Bruins came from Gil Enav (6th at 160); Sean Haskett (6th at 130); and Josh Story (8th at 152).
Fairfax High, 11th place overall in the team standings, received a second place individual finish from Joseph Vanderplas, who went 4-1 over the tournament at the 215 weight class. Vanderplas lost a tough 5-2 decision to Justin Tribble of North Stafford in the finals. The Rebels had three other place finishers in Shaun Hasenpflug (4th place at 160); Nick Lowstuter (6th at 103); and Kevin Richards (8th at 125).
Paul VI (Fairfax), which finished 21th overall in the team standings, saw five of its wrestlers earn top eight place finishes. Those Panthers to place were: Ray Geier (4th at 189); Ty Campbell (5th at 171); Tommy Whitaker (6th at 125); Conor Hughes (7th at 119); and Dan Carlton (8th at 140).
Woodson High had four top eight place finishers - fourth place Carson Brown (heavyweight), fifth place Randall Mailand (152), seventh place Mitchell Kohlhaas (112), and eighth place Michael Orrick (160).
<b>WESTFIELD</b>, the team champion, had two individual champions – Beau Donahue, who went a perfect 5-0 to capture the 140-division weight class, and Brett Campbell, who went 4-0 to win the 112 class. Donahue defeated North Stafford’s Stephen Gwaltney by major decision (15-3) in the 140 finals. Campbell, meanwhile, won his 112 finals match over Fauquier’s Bennett Payne, 4-2.
The Bulldogs also had four wrestlers who earned second place finishes in Tyler DeLeon (4-1 at heavyweight); Stephen Aiello (4-1 at 130); Derek Arnold (4-1 at 125); and Dennon Caranza-Kee (4-1 at 119). Also for Westfield, Harry Van Trees finished third place (5-1 at 152); Frank Aiello (135 division) and David Aiello (103) both took fourth place finishes; Jacob DeLeon (215) and Nick Lehman (145) both finished fifth; and Gabe Ryan (103) was seventh.