Weekend Wrestling Update

By Coach Richard Chiarolanzio

Time for an update on the Caissons Wrestling Team, which took to the  mat again this weekend. On Saturday morning the 3rd of December the wrestling team departed campus at 7 am to make the long long trip to Kate Collins Middle School in Waynesboro, where the Waynesboro High School Giants Classic Wrestling Tournament was held. Ahead of them was going to be a five-match challenge in a duels tournament, a long day with a lot of wrestling.

Upon arrival a copy of the schedule was given to the team and it showed that they would not only wrestle five matches on the day but were the only team there to draw a match in Round 1, Round 2, Round 3 and Round 4. When the team finished with the Round 4 match no other team had more then two matches done so they then go along break prior to what would be the medal round. You could tell how hard they worked in the first four rounds by sight of them sleeping and resting in the bleachers awaiting the news on who they would face in the medal round.

Here is how they did round by round on Saturday.

Round 1

Round one the Caissons took on Wilson Memorial High School and did so on Mat 1 in the main gym. I don’t think the fans the expected to see what took place next. After the opening match loss by Zack McIntyre, the Caissons reeled off 10 straight individual wins, started by James Park winning by pin (filling in for Kyle Harvey, who was across town taking the SAT). Then Steve Woolley wrestled the top wrestler on the Wilson team and won in  a close match 6-5. Kyle Hale then won by pin, Drake Hansen won by pin, Mike Cabeza won by forfeit, Novak Porter won by pin, Briane Sene won by pin. Heavyweight was a double forfeit as neither team had entered a heavyweight in the tournament (anyone want to wrestle heavyweight for the Caissons?). Then Ander Lenardson won by pin, and Bevan Morrison-Rogers closed it out also winning by pin. When it was all over and the teams shaking hands I don’t think fans at the Giants Classic expected to see the scoreboard read Wilson Memorial 18, Fishburne Military School 57. So the day begins with a huge win and moving the team to 3-0 overall.

Round 2

For Round 2 the Caissons moved to the upstairs gym out of the main eye and would then face off against the only other private school thee and VIC foe Covenant (defending VIC state runnerups) This match would be a test to not only see if again the team could stand up to two matches back to back, but a test to see how they would stand against a VIC team that the will see again this year and then again at the VIC Championship Tournament in February. Once again with early wins by Park, Woolley, Hale, and Hansen the team jumped out to a 24-6 lead. From that point on in this match things would go back and forth, with key wins the rest of the way by Porter, Sene, and Morrison-Rogers. When all was said and done and again the teams shaking hands the scorebook (there was not scoreboard in the back gym) had the final team score at Covenant 39-Fishburne 54. So now the team moved to 4-0 over all and still three matches to go on the day. Now the thought in the young Caissons’ heads was simple, we can walk out of here today with a winning record no matter what happens from here on out. and we just may have a shot at finishing in the top three here.

Round 3

After the match in the back gym, the Caissons had to pack up and move back to the main gym again. Back to Mat 1, where awaiting them was the host team, the home team Waynesboro High School, which had just wrestled their first match of the day as we were headed into match number 3 of the day. Now the kids getting ready to wrestle again surrounded by all the purple and gold in the gym seeing the Big Public School from just up the street across the mat from them, it was time to take to the mat for the third time and now for bragging rights in the city of Waynesboro at stake also. Again it started out fast and furious as the Caissons with wins by Park, Woolley, Hale, Cabeza, Porter, and one loss jumped out to a 36-6 lead, and the thoughts in the gym and on our side of the mat were high, we can do this, we can knock off the local team. The thoughts slowly started to fade as Waynesboro then started its charge to get back in this match. won five matches in a row. again a double forfeit at heavyweight in that run gave both teams six points. Going in the that last match I looked at the scoreboard and it said FMS 42, WHS 37. There was a long pause as now only a pin by WHS could win the match. They sent one of their top wrestlers to the mat knowing this is what they needed. He was able to pull it off and the final scoreboard reading was WHS 43-FM 42. a tough first loss not only of the season but of the tournament. But bragging rights to WHS, we won’t give them away, I think now we will share them in Waynesboro a one-point match is a great showing for our boys.

Round 4

No rest for the tired, The team did not have to move this time but just get ready and go again for Round 4 against again another pubic school in Lancaster High School, who had to this point only wrestled one match on the day as we were going into match number four. The out come here would show that the day was now wearing on the young Caissons wrestlers. As Lancaster would pull away and win this match 48-33. Key wins in this match were by Woolly, Cabeza, Porter, and Morrison-Rogers. But not enough to pull out the win. So now the team sat wit a 4-2 record and one match to go. That would be after all the other teams caught up to us. We sat and rested and some slept and waited, and waited and waited.

The break was good for the team as they did get to see some of the other teams wrestle that were in Pool B. we would next face a team from that pool as now we knew we would finish in third place in pool A behind Waynesboro and Lancaster. Pool B it took until the final match to see who would finish where. People were saying that Pool B was the stronger pool there. The medal round would match the teams up 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, and so on from pool to pool. Then it was decided, Mat 1 would be Pool A champ Waynesboro vs Pool B champ Stonewall Jackson High School, Mat 2 Pool A 2nd place Lancaster Vs. Pool B 2nd place Fort Defiance, and in the back gym again, Pool A 3rd Place Fishburne Vs, Pool B 3rd Place Broadway High School. Broadway High School is a VHSL Division AA High School that wrestles as part of the very powerful Valley District. This was going to be another test for the young Caissons. Would they leave the gym 4-3 or 5-2 having to bonce back from back to back losses.

The Medal Round

Again moved to the back gym with no score board, just a flip score card that showed the current on mat score. The match started out with a very hard fought back and forth match that Mike Cabeza gave a very good wrestler all he could handle, but lost 12-7 and FMS was behind 3-0 in the team score. After a few forfeits and several tough losses in some very hard fought matches and back and forth scoring no one was sure what the team score was or how bad it was, the one thing we were sure of was that Broadway High School was ahead in the team score but were sure that they were earning every point they got over some very tough kids. With just three matches to go on the mat I sent Kyle Harvey (who had come from the SAT to support his teammates) over to the head table to check on the team score. All we had left to go was Steve Woolley, Kyle Hale, and Drake Hansen, I knew that Hansen was going to win by forfeit as the Broadway wrestler had been injured earlier in the day. When Harvey returned and informed me that the team score was Broadway 45-Fishburne 30 doing the quick match, it was clear this match was far from over, and we were in the middle of it. Woolley took the mat and did so in style winning by pin in the first period, moving the team score to Broadway 45-Fishburne 36. The gap was shrinking. Now with the one forfeit yet to come the team score was a lock at Broadway 45, Fishburne 42. The final match to be wrestled would send Kyle Hale to the mat to help decide the difference. I pulled him aside as I do all the wrestlers prior to a match and told him, wrestle smart don’t wrestle strong. be the better wrestler, and by the way, if you pin this kid we win. I wanted him to know, I wanted him to handle that. Well he did handle it and handled it great, as he went out and the match was over in one minute and seventeen seconds as he won by pin making the team score Broadway 45 FMS 48. Chalking up a come from behind win and ending the day with a record of 3- 2, and an over all record to date of 5-2.

FMS’s only losses were to Waynesboro who finished 2nd and Lancaster who finished 3rd. So it was a great day for the team. These young men did FMS Proud. All the people there had nothing but good things to say about how these young men performed. All the Coaches also had nothing but praise for the performance of the young Caissons, and again when we say young. The lineup for this tournament had NO Seniors in it, that’s right NONE. All underclassmen.

Team Finished in 3rd place in Pool A, 5th Place over all.  There were 10 teams there. 8 of them public schools.

Bronze Medals

• Richard Swift: 106 pounds
• Ander Lenardson: 120 pounds (next week he will move down to 113 pounds)
• Bevan Morrison-Rogers: 126 pounds
• Drake Hansen: 170 Pounds
• Mike Cabeza: 182 Pounds
• Birane Sene: 220 pounds

Silver Medal

• James Park: 145 Pounds (James did this filling in for Harvey who was at the SAT, he will move down to 138 pounds soon, making us that much stronger)

Gold Medals

• Steve Woolley: 152 Pounds
• Kyle Hale: 160 Pounds
• Novak Porter: 195 Pounds

Once again if you see these young men on campus give them a huge pat on the back as they did the school proud.

NEXT UP for the young Caissons Wrestling team is the Massanutten Military Academy Invite, Saturday 10 Dec.