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Sports · February 22, 2015

Fauquier wrestlers bring home the gold from Salem

Photo/Ted Proctor

Fauquier's wrestling team, managers and coaches celebrate after winning the 4A state title Friday night in Salem. This team is the first in Fauquier County history to bring home a state wrestling championship.

Photo/Ted Proctor

The first state wrestling championship trophy to sit in a Fauquier County high school.

Photo/Ted Proctor

Banners hanging in the Salem Civic Center on Friday for the packed coliseum to see. A large contingent from the county came to cheer the Falcons to victory.

Photo/Ted Proctor

Smiling after taking down the rest of the competition, Daniel Ariola (120 lbs.), Matt Raines (138) and Garrett Tingen (152) share a moment after they became FHS's first two-time state champions late Friday night in Salem. Tingen, the only underclassman, hopes to return next season to attempt becoming the first three-time champ.

It seems we came out of the strongest conference and region. I can’t tell you how many times I looked up and saw our wrestler taking on one they wrestled at conference or region and several times, it was both.

— Fauquier head wrestling Coach Doug Fisher

Team scores

4A
1st: Fauquier 129.0
2nd: Hanover 105.0
3rd: Eastern View 56.0
4th: Woodgrove 43.0
5th: Sherando 40.0
6th: Glen Allen 38.0
7th: Jefferson Forest 37.5
8th: Millbrook 33.5
9th: Smithfield 32.0
10th: Amherst County 31.5
11th: Courtland 28.0
12th: James Wood 25.0
13th: Dominion 22.0
13th: J R Tucker 22.0
15th: Powhatan 20.0
16th: John Handley 18.0
17th: E.C. Glass 17.0
18th: Chancellor 14.0
18th: Nansemond River 14.0
20th: William Fleming 13.0
21st: Jamestown 11.0
22nd: Salem-Salem 9.0
23rd: Tabb 7.0
24th: Loudoun County 6.0
24th: Midlothian 6.0
26th: Bassett 0.0
26th: Booker T Washington 0.0
26th: Caroline 0.0
26th: Deep Creek 0.0
26th: Dinwiddie 0.0
26th: Grafton 0.0
26th: Lake Taylor 0.0
26th: Liberty-Bealeton 0.0
26th: Louisa County 0.0
26th: Monacan 0.0
26th: Park View-Sterling 0.0
26th: Phoebus 0.0
26th: Woodrow Wilson 0.0

Sending six wrestlers into Friday night’s championship proved the key to Fauquier winning its first-ever state wrestling title at the Salem Civic Center.

The Falcons also brought home three, two-time state champions.

“A solid win,” Fauquier Coach Doug Fisher said. “It was nice not having to count points in the final.”

Daniel Ariola (120-pound), Matt Raines (145) and Garrett Tingen, 152 lbs., all won titles for the second consecutive year.

Two more wrestled in third-place consolation matches of the abbreviated state tourney.

The Virginia High School League decided last minute to move from a two-day wrestle-back format to an eight-man pigtail tournament.

The move came after league officials consulted with meteorologists and, according to a VHSL official onsite, county school superintendents.

Officials worried another round of inclement weather due to hit the Roanoke Valley could hamper travel home across the state.

Fauquier, with 129 points, scored an impressive 28-point advantage over reigning 4A state champion Hanover.

Conference 22-rival Eastern View took third with 56 points, followed by Woodgrove (43) and Sherando (40) to round out the top five teams.

Seven of the top 10 teams came from the 4A North region.

“It seems we came out of the strongest conference and region,” Coach Fisher said. “I can’t tell you how many times I looked up and saw our wrestler taking on one they wrestled at conference or region and several times, it was both.”

Liberty – who had just one wrestler, 182-lb. senior Rico Bumbrey – took an injury fall in his opening-round bout with Glen Allen’s Nick Parrish.

Up to that point, Bumbrey had held his own with his opponent.

Kettle Run, wrestling in the 3A tournament failed to send any of its three wrestlers out of the first round.

Caden Lody suffered a third-round pin to Cave Spring’s Josh Neighbors at 120 lbs.

Teammate Justyn Bush (126) took a first-round pin by Northside’s Brandon Robinson, who won the weight class.

Jacob Schwind dropped an 11-6 decision to Northsaide’s Jacob Plasters.

"I'm proud of my wrestlers," Kettle Run Coach Michael Foy said. "We had a very good season. I'm just disappointed in the way the state tournament was run. Two of my wrestlers met returning state champions in the first round. With the VHSL making this single-elimination, it made it tough for us.

"I know in my heart that we had two top-four finishers and all three of my boys would have placed top six. Now these boys will never know and that breaks my heart."

Four groups (1A, 2A, 3A and 4A) held their tourneys simultaneously each with two mats in the cavernous coliseum.

Groups 5A and 6A schools also had their abbreviated meet Friday at James Robinson High School, in Fairfax.

Ariola, who won at 113 lbs. at the 2014 tournament, will go down in the Falcons’ annals as the school’s first two-time state winner.

But it will be an asterisk since his championship bout preceeded his teammates.

The Falcon senior won decisions over two 4A South opponents and Blake Justice, a top-seed from Jefferson Forest, who had beaten Ariola at regionals.

“You have to score early and score at every opportunity,” Ariola said. “You can’t take anything for granted. Everyone hates losing. Me, more so.

“I goofed off early in the season and got the wake-up call. Today, I proved I am still the best – even though I moved up in weight.”

Raines pinned his first-round opponent, then took a 5-0 decision in the semifinals before earning a major decision over Chancellor’s Mark Weinstock.

The senior’s championship marked the sixth straight high school post-season tournament win over Weinstock during Raines’ two-year run.

“I was anxious heading into my last match,” Raines said. “My last high school bout. I just went out and made the most of it.”

Weinstock proved a worthy opponent even though the two by now, know each other’s weaknesses.

Problem for Weinstock: Raines doesn’t have any.

“Matt was dominant,” Coach Fisher said. “No one came close to him.”

Tingen, the only underclassman among the trio, has a chance next year to become Fauquier’s first three-time winner.

The junior picked up three pins, two against regional foes he’d already beaten this season.

“”Garrett was better today than he was at regionals and he was great then,” Coach Fisher said. “He’s going to be a force next year.”

Tingen, who wrestled and won at 145 last year, says he wants to bulk up during the offseason and take on a higher weight class in 2015-16.

“I want to do 170 next year,” Tingen said.

Coach Fisher has no problem with that.

“Looks like we could have a bottle neck in the middle weights next season,” Coach Fisher said. “Garrett’s earned the right to pick his weight.”

Kyle Budd, wrestling at 106, Kyle Roche (132) and Clifford Harrison (160) all lost championship bouts, settling for second-place.

Budd, a freshman, lost to Courtland’s D.J. Ahalt for the second time in two weeks.

“It was an awesome feeling to be here as a freshman,” Budd said. “I was the underdog for some of the matches but it’s been a great experience and I was happy knowing I’d leave with either a first or second place finish.”

Roche lost to Eastern View’s Bryan Ramey, who became a three-time state champion, the first in his school’s brief history.

Harrison lost to Hanover’s Corbin Allen via a major decision.

In a tighter team race, losing to the team right behind you might give pause.

But the Falcons already had sewn up the team title six bouts earlier when Ty Foster (113) won his consolation final over Courtland’s Cliff Conway.

Trevor Marable won his first match of the day, a 3-1 decision over Lake Taylor’s Kaeon Minor but fell twice to finish fourth at 145.

Senior Andrew Smith (195), the only Fauquier wrestler not to make it out of the first round became the Falcon’s only victim of the shortened format.