Orange County knew that if it was going to rally Saturday and beat Salem for a Region 4D title, it was going to go through the big guys.
“Going into those matches the coaches told us that we win this on you guys, it was up to us to pull through,” said Orange’s Braiden Swift said. “Then when you’re in that moment it feels like anything is possible and our mentality really helped us.”
Swift and Derek Pierce delivered with Swift winning a brutal matchup at 195 pounds before Pierce won at 220 pounds to clinch the region championship. Pierce’s effort gave the Hornets a 202.5 to 199.5 win over runner-up Salem.
It was particularly sweet to be able to do it in front of a crowd – spectators weren’t in the mix last year in wrestling — and in particular Orange’s home crowd as the region tournament host.
Both Pierce and Swift’s wins came in similarly dramatic fashion, with reversals later in the match leading to pins that the Hornets had to have. Swift got a reversal in the second period and quickly picked up a pin. Pierce’s came in the final minute of the third period and set off a celebration among the Hornets’ contingent just off the mat.
“The team is so together, we all form as one and if it’s one going down, we all go down,” Pierce said. “This is amazing, it’s a dream.”
The Hornets got a big boost from region champions early on too, with 106-pounder Waylon Rogers and 113-pounder Justin Jones both winning region championships. In the middle weights, Orange had to scrap it out with Louisa’s strong middleweight contingent but came up with a region title from 132-pounder Ethan Turner and 152-pounder Tanner Painting. Then Swift and Pierce closed the door on Salem with their dramatic back-to-back wins.
“I think it was honestly the hard work everyone likes to put in in practice,” Rogers said. “(To see the big guys come through) was amazing. We knew (Pierce and Swift) had it in them, we just wanted to see it for ourselves.”
Orange’s wild comeback win highlighted an incredible day for all three local schools competing in the Region 4D tournament as Louisa County and Western Albemarle posted huge days with Louisa taking fourth with multiple region champions and Western seventh with a region champion in Joey Burch and multiple qualifiers.
The Lions ended the day with region championships for Gianpaolo Ciotola at 120 pounds, defending state champion Owen Greslick at 126 pounds and Kasey Casazza at 145 pounds. Greslick got to enjoy his third-straight region title after winning a grinder of a match 8-3 in front of family and friends. That’s special because a little less than a year after he had to celebrate winning the state title a year ago in the parking lot after he exited the arena.
“I knew I only had two matches if I wanted to win it all today so I worked on my endurance to make sure I was ready for that final and it all paid off,” Greslick said. “We had six finalists today which is crazy, first time in my time in high school.”
Casazaa’s win at 145 pounds was surgical. He pinned his opponent from E.C. Glass in 47 seconds and was clearly on a mission to end it from the start with an aggressive approach right out of the gate.
“I come out there planning for the pin,” Casazza said. “I’m ready to rip their head off. Before a match I’m thinking that kid kissed my momma or something.”
The junior was locked in in part because a year ago he broke a rib at the region semifinals and missed out on competing in the state tournament as a sophomore. That’s given him a particular drive to get back into the mix this year and delivered with that decisive win in the final Saturday.
“I had like 6-7 months of recovery, seeing if I could as hard as I could or get more rest time, you just never really knew,” Casazza said. “I’m really excited (to be headed to states).”
Western Albemarle’s Joey Burch also delivered, avenging his only regular season loss in the region championship against Jefferson Forest’s Floyd Wells. Wells, who like Burch came in with a region title under his belt (Burch won the Region 3C title last year before Western bumped up to Class 4 this year) beat Burch during the regular season.
“I didn’t think I wrestled that well when I lost, but I knew it was close,” Burch said. “We wrestle extremely similarly, we’re both very tall for the weight class, we both hit ankle picks. I didn’t have to prepare that much because it’s like wrestling myself.”
The two wrestlers were pretty even through the first two periods with Wells holding a 1-0 advantage on a second period escape. Burch evened that up with a quick escape in the third and then got a takedown after rolling through an attempted takedown by Floyd. That gave Burch a 3-1 lead, but Floyd tied the match with a reversal created by a roll of his own with 48 seconds to wrestle. Burch briefly appeared headed to his back but fought out of it and stood up for an escape for a 4-3 lead that he held on to to win the match and the region title.
While the 10 local region champions and Orange’s team title were the biggest news of the day, a bunch of other local wrestlers punched their ticket to states too. Louisa’s Gavin Greslick and Nick Torbush earned state berths with runner-up finishes at 138 pounds and 160 pounds while Orange’s Jackson Garrett was the runner-up at 152 pounds and will head to Virginia Beach. Western Albemarle’s Thomas Warren at 152 pounds, Solo Mthetwa for Orange County at 160 pounds and Alex Bradford for Louisa at 170 pounds all took third place and will compete in states.
Aidan Sliger of Orange County at 120, Bode Harris of Western Albemarle at 138 and Dominic Turner of Orange County at 182 all took fourth to also get into the state tournament mix at the Virginia Beach Sports Center February 18th and 19th.
