Orange County’s wrestling team waited 17 years for a VHSL state champion. They got one at the Class 4 state championships Saturday. Then they only had to wait about 15 minutes for the next one.
“It’s a dream come true to have both of them go, we didn’t even have to get out of our seats,” said Hornets coach Steven Steigler.
Waylon Rogers at 106 pounds and Justin Jones at 113 pounds, drilling partners who go to work against each other every day in practice, went back-to-back for state championships Saturday. The wins ended a 17-year drought that stretched back to 2006 when Bryan Seal, now the Hornets head coach, reached the top of the podium. Rogers celebrated by leaping into Seal’s arms.
“I always said I wouldn’t be one of these guys who’d do too big of a celebration but once I was in the moment, I was a whole different person,” Rogers said. “We both put in the work all season, we both knew what we wanted, we both came here, we both got it.”
The twin titles also boosted Orange County to an incredible third place finish as a team in the state meet, a collective effort from 11 wrestlers that qualified for the Hornets.
“This is unexplainable – I’m proud of the kids, they put in the work,” Seal said. “We just showed up to practice and pushed them as much as we could.”
Orange’s Waylon Rogers celebrates his state title at 106 pounds.
Rogers struck first for Orange Saturday, building on his third year in the state tournament with a title after taking fourth and then second as a freshman and sophomore respectively.
Rogers won his first round match 17-0, followed that with a second period pin in the quarterfinals and on Saturday morning he notched another tech fall, this time a 15-0 win. In the final, he pinned Dominion’s Bryce Schnelzer in the second period, a dominant performance against the Region 4C champion.
“I just came into the match knowing this year was my year,” Rogers said. “I messed up last year, lost it 2-0 and I had to come out on top this year – nothing else could happen.”
Jones took the mat shortly after Rogers finished up, coming off first round and quarterfinal pins and a 14-5 major decision in the semifinals. His opponent in the final, Loudoun County’s Bryson Rios, presented a unique challenge and brought a certain familiarity. Rios had beaten Rogers twice in the last two state tournaments as a 106 pounder including the state final one year ago. That gave Jones an inside track on a matchup he’d been staring down all season long.
“We’ve been talking about it all season, we knew he was going up a weight class,” Rogers said. “At this point it was just about him finishing the work I started.”
Jones applied that knowledge throughout and finished the job in dramatic fashion.
“(Waylon) told me he was going to try to throw legs in so immediately on bottom knew those were coming, got rid of those,” Jones said. “I could already tell by looking at him, but Waylon told me he was extremely strong and really heavy on the head so I was basically ready for him.”
Orange’s Justin Jones celebrates winning the state title at 113 pounds.
Jones went down 2-1 early, then escaped to even the match in the second period at 2-2. In the third period Jones gave up an escape to Rios and trailed 3-2. The sophomore excels from neutral, though and with one minute left, there was plenty of time left on the clock for him to deliver.
He made his move with 17 seconds left and took Rios down. To finish it he had to ride Rios out, but Rios refused to go quietly and evened the match as time expired with a clean escape awarded by the ref after the buzzer sounded.
That set the stage for sudden victory and less than 30 seconds in, Jones trusted his instincts while in a tie-up with Rios and went for a throw.
“I knew my gas tank was better than his, I train very hard every day and I knew I could go for as many periods as I needed to,” Jones said. “He went for that inside trip and I was going to throw him. Waylon tries stuff like that (during practice) and I figured I was either going to win it or lose it on that and I went for it.”
It was a dramatic, wild finish to a hard-fought match and it set off a wild, well-earned celebration by Jones as he leapt up, screamed, gestured toward the crowd and held up a one in celebration of his first state title as the ref raised his hand.
Those two titles weren’t the only impressive finishes for the Hornets. Solo Mthethwa finished his career as a Hornet with a third place finish at 175 pounds. He fell in the semifinals and then fought back with a consolation semifinal win and a pin in the third place match of Mechanicsville’s Jacob Koening.
Dominic Turner took fourth at 190 pounds, fighting back from a quarterfinal loss to win three straight consolation matches and wedge his way into the semifinals where he fell in a major decision to Mason Christopher, the wrestler who’d pinned him in the quarterfinal.
Louisa County’s Luke Rowan took sixth in the state at 150 pounds. Rowan advanced to the semifinals with a pin and a 14-8 victory in the quarterfinals. In the semis, he fell and then eventually fell in the fifth place match.
The Lions’ other six wrestlers who qualified for states all didn’t make the podium, but Lucas Phelps, Robert Tovornik, Tanner Painting and Kasey Casazza all scored points.
Western Albemarle’s six wrestlers that advanced to the state tournament missed the podium, but Cole McGinty, Thomas Warren and Owen Townsend all won matches to score team points.
