William Monroe High School’s wrestling team hosted a quad meet Wednesday night featuring Charlottesville, Madison County and Colonial Forge as each team continues its path toward conference and regional competition.
The host Dragons posted a 1-2 record on the evening, defeating CHS in its first match by a score of 48-40 before falling to Colonial Forge 46-30 and dropping a 43-33 decision to Madison. Jimmy Hennessey earned two wins by pin on the night in the 182-pound weight class, the first coming against Charlottesville and another in the Madison match. Greg Sizemore, wrestling at 220 pounds, recorded a first-round pin against Colonial Forge.
“We’re very young and inexperienced. I only have one senior and it’s his first year wrestling,” Monroe coach Mike Sizemore said. “Our goal is ‘are we getting better each time out?’ I thought I saw some good things tonight. You don’t get better if you don’t go out and compete.”
In the heavyweight class, Monroe’s Austin Rath scored a 9-2 victory over his Colonial Forge opponent in his only bout of the night. Rath was coming off an individual victory at the Big Blue Tournament in Christiansburg, considered to be one of the top wrestling tournaments in the state.
“I feel confident that if Austin does what he’s supposed to do the rest of the season, he can make it to the state tournament,” Sizemore said. “He’s a very smart wrestler and knows what he’s doing.”
Madison went 2-1, defeating Charlottesville 48-24 in addition to its win over Monroe. The Mountaineers dropped a tough 40-27 decision to Colonial Forge. Joseph Manuel, wrestling in the 220 class despite being undersized, registered three pins in three matches, taking out Sizemore and Charlottesville’s Sedarius Foley in battles of local standouts. Manuel was coming off of a third-place finish in the recent Daily News Leader tournament.
“Joe is actually 195 but he’s wrestling up for us,” Madison coach Mike Sacra said. “He’s having a pretty good year.”
Dalton Dudley, who won the 152-pound weight class at the Daily News Leader tournament, picked up a pair of pins for the Mountaineers. In that tournament, Madison finished in fourth place.
“Dalton’s a junior and is having a phenomenal season,” Sacra said. “We’re struggling as a dual team since we have to forfeit a few weight classes every night, but I think we have a good tournament team.”
Despite an 0-3 dual showing, CHS posted some impressive individual victories. Isaac Kenner, wrestling at 120 pounds, registered a third-period pin of Madison’s Zach Waters. That came on the heels of Kenner’s 17-6 decision over William Monroe’s Miles Lesko in the first dual. Kenner later dropped a tough 7-5 decision against Colonial Forge. Meanwhile, at 220, Foley battled Sizemore the entire first period before pinning him 13 seconds before the horn at the end of the CHS-Monroe match. He picked up another first-round pin against Colonial Forge, leading to six of the Black Knights’ 18 points in that match.
“We’ve had some injuries, we’re a little depleted, we only brought seven guys,” CHS coach Chuck Wood said. “But the kids are trying hard. Sedarius is a great kid. He does what we teach him to do. This is his first year wrestling–however far he goes, I’m sure he’s learned a ton.”
