The Orange County wrestlers were curious as to how they measured up and they came into to the night missing the undefeated 170-pound Zach Rider. To do well without him would speak volumes and they did just that. First up on the docket was the top ranked team in the state, the absolute powerhouse that is Colonial Forge. After that it was a showdown with Stafford.
“We didn’t think we were going to win against Colonial Forge, they’re a nationally ranked team, they’re just disgusting,” said Sean Raftery at 160. “But we went in thinking we could do some damage. We said, ‘Hey, let’s get a couple of wins and build some momentum,’ and so I think we did better than we expected.”
For more than a month the Hornets have established a name for themselves as one of the best squads in the Commonwealth District. What they found out Wednesday is while there still is a bit of a gap between them and top-ranked Forge, it’s not a disappointing difference, and on top of that, it’s actually Stafford that’s looking up to Orange now after the Hornets posted a 2-1 record in a CD mini-match.
“I was really proud of the kids because they didn’t wrestle intimidated,” said Hornets coach John Kayajanian. “Frank Cox, the number two team in the state didn’t post what we did against (Colonial Forge) so that’s great. We do have some work to do, but the kids worked hard for this… We’re missing one of our better wrestlers right now, so this was a big night.”
Against Colonial Forge, Raftery, Ryan Almond at 152, Isaiah Coleman-Combs at 106, Billy Knabe in the heavyweight department and Trevor Payne at 182 all won their matches with Coleman and Knabe each winning by pinfall to provide Orange 21 points.
But the Eagles picked up eight pinfalls and one tech fall to tally up 53 points to maintain their status as the best in the Commonwealth.
Orange had a real battle with Stafford as they need a pair of wins from Raftery and Almond to jump ahead of Stafford as they faced a forfeit at 170. Raftery and Almond both came up big with wins to give the Hornets a 40-30 lead and establish themselves as the second best team in the District behind Forge.
“Honestly it feels great to be doing this well in one of the best districts in Virginia,” Raftery said. “I thought we could be top-3 in the district, but against Stafford, we found a way to beat them and so now we’re top-2 and it feels great.”
In its final match of the night, Orange had little trouble with Brooke Point, dispatching the Hawks, 50-29.
Raftery, Almond, Coleman-Combs, and Knabe all went unbeaten on the night. Raftery, Coleman and Knabe (285) won three matches each while Almond beat two opponents and won in a forfeit. Hugh Morris (126) and Michael Benner (145) each won two of their three matches.
“We’re really not afraid of anything and that helps,” Almond said. “Everyone is just a wrestler out there. I’m actually glad we’re seeing better competition.”
First year Albemarle coach Phillip Plowman has his hands full as he looks to revamp the Patriots wrestling program as with just five wrestlers, forfeits put his team in a bind.
The Partiots fell in all three of their matches to Manassas Park, 66-9, Riverbend 37-12, and Mountain View 60-15. However, the bright spot in those matches were at the lighter end of his lineup as Carlos Martinez won all three of his matches, and two by pinfall, and Lester Hernandez won two of his three matches at 113, both of those by pinfall.
“Of the guys that wrestled I thought we did really well, but it’s really tough to compete with just five guys,” Plowman said. “Between the way we wrestled at the start of the year against these teams and now, you can definitely see improvement.”
Jordan Grimsley at 120 provided the only other points for Albemarle outside of Hernandez and Martinez when he picked up a win against the Wild Cats.
