The Westfield wrestling team showcases its championship banner last Saturday night. Courtesy of Westfield Wrestling
The Westfield High wrestling team put together a dominant showing at last weekend’s Concorde District Championships, held Friday and Saturday (Feb. 3-4) at Chantilly High School. The Bulldogs, behind seven individual champions, scored 207 points, well ahead of runner-up Robinson’s 165, to capture the district crown.
The third through sixth place team finishers were Oakton (119), Centreville (117.50), Chantilly (79), and Herndon (45).
The Northern Region Championships are set to take place this Friday and Saturday (Feb. 10-11) at Hayfield High School in Alexandria.
“We wrestled really, really well,” said Westfield head coach Chuck Hoskins, of his squad’s showing at districts. “I was very pleased with how we executed and got after it.”
Westfield’s individual champions were: Mitch Polizzi (220-weight class), a 1-0 finals winner over Centreville’s Joey Steinbach; Austin Kries (182), a 3-1 finals winner over Oakton’s Josh Newman; Beau Donahue (152), a major decision winner (21-10) over Oakton’s Albert Borges in the finals; Derek Arnold (138), who won his title match over Robinson’s Santiago Valdez, 3-2; Brett Campbell (120), a 2-0 title match winner over Robinson’s Austin Riggs; David Aiello (113), a third period pin winner over finals opponent Ali Nadri of Chantilly; and Gabe Ryan (106), who bested Robinson’s Greyson Olimpo, 6-5, in the finals.
Westfield had two other wrestlers make it to championship matches – Stephen Aiello (145), who lost to Robinson’s Brooks Martino, 9-0, in the finals match; and Ben Cameron (132), who fell to Chantilly’s Walter Carlson, 6-2, in the title match.
Westfield had two third place finishers – Tyler Morson (170) and Frank Aiello (160). Also for the Bulldogs, Artie Pickett (126) finished fourth in his weight class.
The top four finishers at each weight class earned an automatic seeding for regionals.
FOURTH PLACE CENTREVILLE had one first place champion in Ryan Sepulveda (170), who won his championship match over Robinson’s Cole DePasquale, 3-0.
In all, Centreville had 12 wrestlers earn top four places in their respective weight classes to advance to regionals. Along with champion Sepulveda, those Wildcat wrestlers were: second place finishers Joey Steinbach (220) and David Chenevey (195); third place finishers Connor Mitchell (132), Jerry Cowman (126), Michael Vu (113), and Chung Do Kim (106); and fourth place finishers Jason Park (285), Connor Howell (182), Tyler Love (160), Will Fulton (152), and Joey Nowak (120).
CHANTILLY HIGH, fifth in the team standings, had one champion and seven top four place finishers. Walter Carlson was the Chargers’ champion, winning the 132 division with his 6-2 finals win over Ben Cameron of Westfield.
Chantilly’s lone second place finisher was Ali Nadri (113), who lost his finals match to Westfield’s David Aiello. The Chargers had four wrestlers who finished in third place – Ian Shircliff (285), Sam Cronin (145), Ryland Arnold (138), and Joey Rivetti (120). Earning a fourth place standing was Javin Re (195).