When the Hanover County schools got together in their annual Quad meet last Wednesday, there was no doubt that those in attendance will be treated to an evening of intensity and high caliber wrestling.
  Still showing themselves as the team to beat in the Capital District, no one was necessarily surprised when the Hanover Hawks continued to demonstrate their depth and strength as a team with wins over Lee-Davis (2nd), Atlee (3rd) and Patrick Henry (4th).

  “No surprises really,” said Hanover head coach Aaron Bradley. “We knew Atlee had a few good individuals, they were able to do pretty well.”

  Eight Hanover wrestlers went undefeated on the evening.  Gabe LaVey (135) and Shreve Rohl (160) finished the evening with three pins while Michael Flora with one pin and a major decision at 112.  Paul Eubank with one pin and a decision at 119 while Connor Harrison came away with two pins and a decision at 125. Landon Casstevens was undefeated at 171 while Patrick Sorey and Jacob Nussbaun split time at 189. Sorey finished with two pins and Nussbaun one pin.

  Yet, there certainly were surprises throughout the evening in points margin, including a couple of squeaker wins.

  Most notable was the Confederates coming from behind in their last match against the Raiders to clinch victory 39-38 with an Aaron Bolden pin in the second period against first year senior Michael Hyland at 160. 

  “Not the results we were anticipating but the kids wrestled well,” said Atlee head coach Steven Lagow. “We had some injuries and kids out on trips so with the kids that went they wrestled hard.”

  One of the most dominant performances of the evening came from Atlee’s Dillon Knight at 130 who got three pins in under a minute and his third at 5:41.

  “He’s a returning state qualifier and he continues to wrestle well,” Lagow said. “He continues to wrestle well.”

  Also finishing the evening undefeated were senior Justin Goon at 145 and 152 with two pins and team captain Will Hayes at 140.

  Lagow was also impressed by the performance of Justin Woolard pinning Patrick Henry’s Mark Reisenweaver and being pinned by LaVey, which in itself was nothing to be ashamed of. “Even though he lost to Gabe LaVey, I was impressed with Justin Woolard,” Lagow said. “He’s starting to turn the corner. If continues to put forth the effort we saw out of him last week we’ll start to see more things out of him.”

  The other surprising moment came when the Patrick Henry roared back from 12 points behind Atlee in their last two matches to tie the event with two successive pins at 160 and 171.  However, the decision was handed to the Raiders on a criteria H win for first points scored in the 160 match. Ironically, though Hyland was pinned by Patrick Henry’s Jake Harris, Hyland’s effort scored the first points which gave Atlee the team win.

  “That was pretty much the difference in the match, being aggressive and getting the first points scored even though he ended up losing, but being aggressive and scoring first helped us out,” Lagow said.

  Patriots’ head coach Robert Toney, though disturbed to be edged out of a win in a criteria H upset, was still encouraged by his team’s overall efforts. “I thought we wrestled fairly tough against Hanover,” he said. “They were definitely one of the teams to beat; but we didn’t just roll over for them.  Atlee gave us more than I thought they would.  They were a lot deeper than I expected; but we still wrestled tough against Atlee…it came down to a criteria, so it was an exciting match there. 

  “With Lee-Davis, I think we just let it get away from us,” Toney said. “I think our heads weren’t in the game after the last match.  Some of the kids weren’t ready for it; but we’ve got a lot to learn, a lot of season to go.  [We have] a lot of young kids.  We have six freshmen in our lineup right now, and two other kids that are first year wrestlers; so, a lot of things to pick up right now, but we’re working on it.”

  Toney was especially pleased with the performance of freshman Jake Harris at 160. “He wrestled his tail off the whole time,” Toney said. “He had some wins…just wrestled real tough.  I’m looking to see a lot out of him in the future.”

  For Lee-Davis’ head coach, Josh Tyler, in some way things played out as he expected. “Overall as far as wins and losses, we did what I expected us to do,” he said. 

  However, Tyler was not left unsurprised on the evening. “Now points margin was a complete surprise to me to go from beating Atlee by one point, to a decision by criteria to Patrick Henry, to getting slaughtered by Hanover who had a close match with Atlee,” he said. “None of them made any sense. 

  “But, what I was pleased with is, after taking some lumps, having a tight match against Atlee, and then getting beat up a little bit by Hanover, instead of responding negatively the guys stepped up and they beat Patrick Henry pretty soundly,” Tyler said. “Patrick Henry showed they were a solid team and were hanging in tight with people.  So, for us to be able to come back at the end of the night and beat them by that margin (59-24) shows these guys’ tenacity and will to fight and win.” 

  Tyler liked what he saw from Sawyer Barksdale at 112, especially against Hanover’s Michael Flora. “(Barksdale) was winning up until the last fifteen seconds got a little too excited and got out of position,” Tyler said pointing out that Flora is a snug wrestler who has been in tight matches a lot and knows how to find a way to win.

  Also going 3-0 were Lee-Davis’ Tyler Wooten (103) with two pins.

  Charlie Leffler contributed to this article.
 
 
Hanover 49 Atlee 30
103 Sloan Lennon (A) p. Jacob Rozsahegyi 1:08 112 Michael Flora (H) p. Blake Glover 1:02 119 Paul Eubank (H) FF 125 Connor Harrison (H) p. Liz Walden 0:17 130 Dillon Knight (A) p. Joe Jarrells 5:41 135 Gabe LaVey (H) p. Justin Woolard 3:44 140 Will Hays (A) p. Michael Engels 2:35 145 Justin Goon (A) p. Aaron Ward 1:25 152 Chris Nester (H) md. Cody Thomas 11-2 160 Shreve Rohle (H) p. Michael Hyland 0:43 171 Landon Casstevens (H) FF 189 Patrick Sorey (H) d. James Ramser 10-3 215 Henry Reeves (H) p. Tyler Atkins 1:55 285 Mario Ramirez (A) p. Josh Hutto 0:15

Hanover 59 Patrick Henry 18
103 Cole Pellham (PH) p. Jacob Rozsahegyi 1:24 112 Michael Flora (H) md. Josh Harrell 13-8 119 Paul Eubank (H) p. Andrew Steele 3:55 125 Connor Harrison (H) p. Jake Bevins 0:56 130 Joe Jarrels (H) p. Josh Kenney 1:01 135 Gabe LaVey (H) p. Brian Ward 0:43 140 Michael Engels (H) FF 145 Chase Moss (PH) d. Aaron Ward 14-7 152 Nick Devine (PH) p. Chris Nester 0:47 160 Shreve Rohle (H) p. Jake Harris 3:24 171 Landon Casstevens (H) p. Clark Korsgaurd 2:33 189 Jacob Nussbaun (H) p. Jack Schmidt 4:44 215 Tom Walker (PH) d. Henry Reeves 6-3 285 Josh Hutto (H) p. Mark Nutter 1:39

Hanover 51 Lee-Davis 14
103 Tyler Wooten (LD) p. Jacob Rozsanegyi 0:25 112 Michael Flora (H) d. Sawyer Barksdale 5-3 119 Paul Eubank (H) d. Reid Hues 9-5 125 Connor Harrison (H) d. Collin VanAllen 4-1 130 Joe Jarrels (H) p. John Randazzo 135 Gabe LaVey (H) p. Mark Reisenweaver 2:10 140 Michael Engels (H) d. Trey Baldwin 6-0 145 Hunter Helmick (LD) tf. Aaron Ward 15-0 152 Chris Nester (H) d. Eain Shores 8-3 160 Shreve Rohle (H) p. Aaron Bolden 2:47 171 Landon Casstevens (H) FF 189 Patrick Sorey (H) p. Taylor Campbell 215 Brandon Robinson (LD) d. Henry Reeves 4-3 285 Josh Hutto (H) FF

Atlee 43 Patrick Henry 42 (PH wins on Criteria H - 1st team points)
103 Cole Pellham (PH) p. Sloan Lennon 3:39 112 Josh Harrel (PH) p. Blake Glover 1:43 119 Andrew Steele (PH) FF 125 Jake Bevins (PH) p. Liz Walden 3:47 130 Dillon Knight (A) p. Josh Kenney 0:25 135 Justin White (A) p. Brian Ward 3:59 140 Justin Woolard (A) FF 145 Will Hays (A) p. Chase Moss 1:05 152 Justin Goon (A) p. Nick Devine 2:34 160 Jake Harris (PH) p. Michael Hyland 1:33 171 Clark Korsgaurd (PH) p. Jake Weimer 3:40 189 James Ramser (A) p. Jack Schmidt 1:06 215 Tom Walker (PH) p. Tyler Atkins 1:06 285 Mario Ramirez (A) p. Mark Nutter 1:26

Lee-Davis 39 Atlee 38
103 Tyler Wooten (LD) d. Lennon Sloan 6-1 112 Sawyer Barksdale (LD) p. Blake Glover 0:44 119 Reid Hues (LD) FF 125 Collin VanAllen (LD) p. Liz Walden 5:53 130 Dillon Knight (A) p. John Randazzo 0:55 135 Justin Woolard (A) p. Mark Reisenweaver 5:53 140 Will Hays (A) md. Trey Baldwin 9-0 145 Justin Goon (A) md. Hunter Helmick 15-2 152 Eain Shores (LD) p. Cody Thomas 4:04 160 Aaron Bolden (LD) p. Michael Hyland 2:20 171 Jake Weimer (A) FF 189 James Ramser (A) p. Taylor Campbell 1:50 215 Brandon Robinson (LD) p. Spencer Smith 0:56 285 Mario Ramirez (A) FF

Lee-Davis 59 Patrick Henry 24
103 Tyler Wooten (LD) p. Cole Pellam 1:45 112 Sawyer Barksdale (LD) Josh Harrell 1:59 119 Reid Hues (LD) p. Andrew Steele 1:15 125 Collin VanAllen (LD) p. Jake Bevins 2:42 130 Josh Kenney (PH) p. John Randazzo 1:16 135 Mark Riesenweaver (LD) d. Brian Ward 1:23 140 Trey Baldwin (LD) FF 145 Hunter Helmick p. Chase Moss 5:12 152 Adam Stokes (LD) p. Nick Devine 5:05 160 Aaron Bolden (LD) tf. Jake Harris 17-2 171 Clark Korsgaurd (PH) FF 189 Donovan Jost (PH) p. Taylor Campbell 2:14 215 Brandon Robinson (LD) p. Tom Walker 3:00 285 Mark Nutter (PH) FF