Fishburne Military School Wrestling Breaks Into State Rankings
recap by Coach Chiarolonzio
Fishburne Military School (VA) Wrestling Looking Dominant Again in 2014/2015.
This past Saturday, during Parents Winter Weekend at FMS, the wrestling team was on the road at the VIC Championship Tournament held at The Covenant School. Going into the VIC Championship the team finished the regular Season with a record of 18-5. Within the VIC, the Caissons were 5-2 and ranked third for the conference’s regular season. Number one ranked LCA was the strong favorite to win this year’s tournament and are also ranked at #1 in the VISAA State Rankings. The team projected to finish second this year was Covenant who had a great season and did beat FMS in their regular season meeting.
The tournament started off with no major upsets or losses for the team, In the quarter-finals, James Wright took to the mat against a wrestler from VES who has been wrestling in the Varsity lineup for the past 3 seasons. This is Wright’s first season ever on the wrestling mat. Well, Wright stepped up his game and pulled off a huge win, advancing to the semi-finals. The rest of the quarter-finals went on with no major changes and on to the semi-finals it was.
How many wrestlers could Fishburne place in the finals, was the question. Going into this round it was a very tight battle between Covenant and FMS for the second-place finish as a team. Every time the score rolled across the screen the teams would trade places. Well, the semi-finals would not be as kind to us in some spots, but in others they were very bright.
The round started with Fosdick, at 106lbs, who won by pin and moved into the Finals. Then, losses at 113lbs and 120lbs sent Bailey and Finchem to the consolation round to come back for 3rd. At 126lbs, Schuhmacher advanced to the finals. At 132lbs Wright would now take the mat against the #2 seed from Blue Ridge who Wright got pinned by during the regular season…but not this time. This time it was Wright, again working his backside off and winning to advance to the VIC Championship match. At 138lbs, May made short work of his wrestler and advanced to the finals. Then the team hit a rough spot, leading matches but falling short either late in a match or in over-time losses for the next 4 weight classes. Then Ross would break the streak by pulling off a pin while he was behind in points to advance to the finals. The Caissons would not advance any more to the finals. This round seemed to do the team score in. Well, Covenant lost 2 wrestlers that they thought would advance to the finals but still pulled ahead of us in points and it seemed that they may now be out of reach and we would have to settle for 3rd place. So, we checked the team score and saw where the 4th place team was (HMA) to make sure we did not fall behind them.
During this time (the final break before the medal round) we had a team meeting and we talked, telling everyone that in order to come back we not only needed wins but we needed an upset here and there and we needed wins by pin to get bonus points if we were to have any chance at all to catch Covenant and make sure that HMA did not catch us. So, after the consolation semi-finals, it was the medal round and we had all 14 wrestlers now still wrestling for a top 4 finish.
In the Medal Round it started also and it looked like this:
At 106lbs – Fosdick fell in the championship finals to the #2 kid in the state from LCA: 2nd Place
At 113lbs – Bailey won by forfeit in the consolation finals: 3rd Place
At 120lbs – Fincham would pull of a huge win over the wrestler from Miller School in the consolation finals: 3rd Place
At 126lbs – Shuhmacher would lose in the championship finals: 2nd Place
At 132lbs – Wright’s run of upsets ended as he lost in the finals to the wrestler from Covenant putting them further ahead of us: 2nd Place
At 138lbs – May won by pin in the finals, picking up bonus points and cutting into the Covenant lead: Tournament Champion
At 145lbs – Camarro would wrestle the kid from Roanoke Catholic who had been ranked #5 in the state. Camarro wrestled a great match and won by pin…more bonus points cutting into the Covenant lead: 3rd Place
At 152lbs – This would change the points for good as McIntyre would wrestle the top seed from Covenant. McIntyre lost to this kid earlier this season, but this time he would come from behind in the third period and win 8-7…picking up the win and denying Covenant any points. McIntyre: 3rd Place
Now it was a one point tournament.
At 160lbs – Kovach would lose in the consolation finals; but, at the same time the Covenant Wrestler would lose his championship finals…thus keeping the score the same. Kovach: 4th Place
At 170lbs – Scantlebury would wrestle the HMA kid in the consolation finals and he had just knocked out the Covenant Wrestler in the round before. Scantlebury would win by pin again picking up bonus points and putting FMS into second place with 4 weight classes left. Scantlebury: 3rd Place
At 182lbs – Ross would lose in the championship finals; and, at the same time, the Covenant wrestler won in his consolation final; so it was tight again with 3 weight classes to go. Ross: 2nd Place
With three weight classes to go, (195, 220, and 285) FMS had a wrestler in the consolation finals of all 3 weights. Covenant had one in the consolation finals (who would wrestle Duffield) and one in the championship finals at 285. We knew at this point it could come down to the final weight class.
At 195lbs – Taylor would wrestle the kid from Roanoke Catholic and come up with a huge pin in the 3rd Period for the win and more bonus points. Covenant did not have a wrestler left at this weight so we pulled away a little bit. Taylor: 3rd Place
At 220lbs – Duffield would be the key match now. We figured it COULD be the clinching match if Duffield would win and knock off the wrestler from Covenant for 3rd. In a back-and-forth match, Duffield turned on the heat late in the second period and pulled away for a 5-1 win. Again earning the win and denying Covenant points. It seemed that we had just locked up 2nd place as a team. Duffield: 3rd Place
At 285lbs – Al Farhan would be wrestling the HMA wrestler in the consolation finals who he had been pinned by during the season. Over in the Championship Finals the Covenant wrestler was to take on the #2 wrestler in the state from LCA. As Al Far Farhan and the HMA wrestler started we noticed that the Championship Finals had not started yet. At the end of the first period Al Farhan was tied 0-0 with the HMA Wrestler. The HMA Wrestler picked the bottom position to start the second period. As the whistle blew to start the period we looked and the Covenant Wrestler had just won in the championship finals by forfeit as the LCA wrestler was hanging over a trash can getting sick and could not wrestler. This was not a major concern as that win and by forfeit gave Covenant bonus points and we were not sure if they had taken the lead back. BUT it did not matter as that all took about 20 seconds and 7 seconds later Al Farhan pinned the wrestler from HMA to give the team the enough bonus points to hang on to 2nd place. Al Farhan: 3rd Place
This team stepped up huge this weekend, some wrestled the best matches they have all year in the key moments to give the team 2nd place for the 3rd year in a row in the VIC.
On Sunday, the unofficial State Team Rankings were released: All year FMS has not cracked the top 10 with people still saying we were young and rebuilding after last season’s team saw 10 seniors graduate out of the 14 starters. But now, in these new Rankings FMS is ranked as the #10 program in the State, headed into the State Championship Tournament next Friday in Richmond.
The team was told that if they wanted to qualify for the State Championship Tournament they had to finish in the top 4 spots in the VIC Championship Tournament. For the 3rd year in a row ALL 14 Wrestlers finished in the top 4 and have qualified for the VISAA State Championship Tournament.
Great job by these young men!
Fishburne Military School is the oldest and smallest of all military schools for boys in Virginia. Its college-prep curriculum is built upon the structure of an Army JROTC program. Boasting a 100% college-acceptance rate for the past 10 consecutive years, FMS has also been designated as a JROTC Honor Unit with Distinction and may nominate qualified candidates to the United States Service Academics. Fishburne hosts one of only four Summer JROTC programs in the nation, accredited by US Army Cadet Command.
