Anthony Jewett didn’t get it done on brute strength at the Salem Civic Center Saturday night. The Madison County junior won the match with his mind.
Jewett’s ability to quickly change and rework his strategy before and during the match helped the Mountaineers’ 160-pound standout knock off previously unbeaten Buffalo Gap wrestler Zac Richey in the Group A final Saturday night to wrap up an individual state title. The win capped a surprising run to the final round after Jewett finished third in last week’s regional tournament, including a semifinal loss to Richey.
Jewett changed up his strategy against Richey in the week leading up to the trip to Salem, opting to lean on his counter-attack.
“Anthony has a good shot but he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in it,” said Madison coach Mike Sacra. “So we spent a lot more time working on re-shots — when a kid takes a shot, we’re going to shoot when he comes back up.”
The approach worked well, as Jewett battled to a near standstill with Richey at the neutral position, one of Richey’s strengths. Jewett pulled off a reversal in the first period to knot the match at 2-2 after an early Richey takedown. But during that first segment, Jewett sensed that Richey was tiring early, likely the result of battling the entire weekend as an unbeaten wrestler with the ensuing target on his back. Jewett adjusted accordingly, setting himself up for a strong finish.
“That’s how I adapted my strategy — I knew I would have to put out more near the end of it to take advantage of him running out of breath,” Jewett said. “So I settled in.”
Jewett managed to escape from bottom position in the second round and hold a 3-2 lead, but he couldn’t maintain the advantage in the third as Richey pulled his own reversal with a minute left in the match, taking a 4-2 lead. Jewett broke back with an escape on a sitout to even the match at 4-4, then came up with a single leg takedown with 24 seconds left to hold a 6-4 lead.
Still, like any unbeaten wrestler would, Richey refused to go down without a fight. He worked quickly in the closing seconds of regulation and pulled another reversal on Jewett to even the match at 6-6 and force overtime.
“I figured it would be close — I didn’t know how close,” Jewett said. “I didn’t know it was even the end of regulation.”
In overtime, Richey took a shot at a double leg takedown, but Jewett’s sprawl prevented its completion. Jewett couldn’t spin for the necessary points, however and Richey escaped, forcing the tandem back to neutral. Jewett managed a takedown of his own at the end of the one-minute period, leading the two referees to confer on the move shortly before awarding Jewett the two points and, in turn a state title.
“That’s a great run this weekend to finish third last weekend — he wrestled well this weekend,” Sacra said.
Jewett celebrated with Sacra and Madison County’s volunteer assistant James Jewett, a former Madison wrestler and Anthony’s older brother.
“James and I have always worked well together — he wrestled before and he’s a really good coach,” Jewett said.
Jewett was the area’s lone representative in the finals in Salem, but he was far from the only placewinner.
His teammates, Ethan O’Connell and Danny Camanus grabbed podium slots with third place and seventh place finishes at 130 and 145 pounds respectively.
In Group AA action, Fluvanna County had a pair of placewinners with Christian Chirico making a terrific run at 160-pounds to finish third overall in the loaded weight class, while Justin Zimmerman managed a sixth place finish at 103-pounds.
Western Albemarle’s Max Weiner took seventh at 171 pounds, Kai Shin took third place at 189 pounds and Louisa County’s Nate Whitmer grabbed a fifth place at 215 pounds to wrap up Central Virginia’s representation on the podium.
