by Derek “Big D” Nash
DigitalSports Contributor
In a weekend where you would think the James River Rapids were going to run away with the Central Region wrestling tournament title, the Hanover Hawks put plenty of pressure on the Rapids.
But in the end the Rapids still prevailed as the Team Champs!!!
Going into Saturday night’s finals, Hanover had to win several individual titles to take away the team trophy from the Rapids.
After Spencer Alexander and Gabe Lavey won the 103- and 125-pound titles, respectively, it looked as if the Hawks had a good chance of taking it all. Then on came the Rapids!!
Jordan Dix and Jared Anongos won back-to-back titles at 130 and 135 to secure the championship.
Anongos beat Hawks standout Ben Wilson in front of a packed house.
I have to give credit to Wilson. He came out from the get go and didn’t back down from Anongos, who won his fourth region Title. This was Dix’s third Title.
Earlier in the day, Anongos wrestled Josh Clark (Matoaca) in what was a much-anticipated semifinal between two state-ranked opponents.
Anongos came out on top 2-1, which became the biggest topic of the day, in what figured to be a low scoring affair where both wrestlers were waiting on the other one to make a mistake.
With the score 0-0 after the first period Clark won the coin toss and chose down to start the second. His escape gave him a 1-0 lead going into the third period because both wrestlers stayed neutral the rest of the second period.
Clark was warned for stalling and then Anongos was given a point for a second stalling call on Clark, which brought out a nasty war from the crowd. Clark then decided to let Anongos up, which put Anongos up 2-1, in hopes that he would take him down.
That didn’t happen and after a positive/negative emotional war from the crowd the two wrestlers shook hands, hugged and walked off the mat.
The finals had some really good matches to entertain the crowd.
In round four of Cody Allala (Hopewell) and Blake Roulo (Matoaca) at 145 pounds was again supposed to be the match everyone had been waiting for. The match again didn’t disappoint as Allala won the bout 4-0.
A majority of his points came on a 3-point near fall late in the second period as he tilted Roulo onto his back. A third period escape by Allala gave him the 4-0 lead and the victory.
Allala’s brother Clint won the 160-pound title by pinning Zach Burholder of Clover Hill. The pin was the only pin of the finals.
Matt Brunke (Mills Godwin) held on to beat Cosby standout Austin Coburn 4-3 as Coburn was trying to turn Brunke late in the match for some near fall points, but couldn’t finish the turn.
Finally, the 285 bout was a rematch of last weekend’s Central District final between LaRoyce Lewis (Prince George) and Cam Granderson (Hopewell). Granderson won the district title 4-2 over Lewis, but this time it was Lewis prevailing 3-2 for the regional title.
GREAT MATCHES FROM ALL THESE GUYS!!!
1. James River 172.5; 2. Hanover 161.5; 3. Hermitage 124; 4. Cosby 117.5; 5. Hopewell 112.5; 6. Mills Godwin 112; 7. Deep Run 96.5; 8. Lee-Davis 94; 9. Thomas Dale 91; 10. Dinwiddie 84.5; 11. Midlothian 81; 12. Henrico 56.5; 13. Clover Hill, Varina 53; 15. Matoaca 48; 16. Prince George 41; 17. Meadowbrook 35.5; 18. Colonial Heights 33; 19. Atlee 32; 20. Highland Springs 30; 21. L.C. Bird 25; 22. George Wythe 21; 23. Manchester 20.5; 24. J.R. Tucker 19; 25. Douglas Freeman 12; 26. Armstrong 9; 27. Huguenot 6; 28. Monacan 5; 29. Petersburg 1
Your final results of the night:
103 – Spence Alexander (Hanover) d. Brayden Manchester (James River) 9-5
112 – Charlie Lipford (Henrico) d. Jordan O’Donnell (James River) 7-0
119 – Peyton Walsh (Deep Run) tf. Alex Turley (Thomas Dale) 20-5
125 – Gave LaVey (Hanover) d. James Williams (Henrico) 6-2
130 – Jordan Dix (James River) d. Brendon Crawley (Cosby) 8-4
135 – Jared Anongos (James River) d. Ben Wilson (Hanover) 6-3
140 – Matt Hatcher (Mills Godwin) d. Brandon Diamond (Thomas Dale) 6-1
145 – Cody Allala (Hopewell) d. Blake Roulo (Matoaca) 4-0
152 – Matt Brunke (Mills Godwin) d. Austin Coburn (Cosby) 4-3
160 – Clint Allala (Hopewell) pinned Zach Burholder (Clover Hill)
171 – Marc Heathcock (Hermitage) d. Kyle Locke (Hanover) 6-2
189 – Josh El (Hermitage) d. Cole Knapp (Deep Run) 5-3
215 – Denny Vaughan (Dinwiddie) pinned Mark Howard (Midlothian)
285 – LaRoyce Lewis (Prince George) d. Cam Granderson (Hopewell) 3-2
Most Outstanding Wrestler Award: Jared Anongos (James River)
Coach of the Year Award: Dan Leale (Deep Run)
Big D’s MOW: Cody Allala (Hopewell). He beat Andrew Rose (Manchester) by Tech Fall 18-2 in the semis, who was last year’s 145 pound champ and then for the fourth time this year beat Blake Roulo (Matoaca) 4-0 in the final.
In a weekend full of surprises, upsets and emotions I have to say that the Central Region tournament did not disappoint.
Next weekend is the big weekend as all 56 Central Region wrestlers who qualified carry their headgear to states in hopes of big dreams. I feel as if we can have an outstanding end to such a great year.
GOOD LUCK CENTRAL REGION!
Side note: I want to personally thank everyone for all their kind words and prayers that they said to me over the weekend and on the centralregionwrestling.net forum. I’m looking forward to having this gastric bypass and again THANK YOU CENTRAL REGION.
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