Cougars in position to claim title

SALEM -- As Group A regional champions fell by the handful -- one in seven was knocked off by the fourth-place finisher from a different region -- Manassas Park came through cleanly. The Cou-gars advanced seven wrestlers to the semifinals, including all six of their regional titlists, putting them in a strong position to reclaim the state title after the first day of the Group AA/A state tour-nament.

In Group AA, upsets were less plentiful, though Brentsville's Scott Crane pulled one off. The Tiger 145-pounder knocked off Brookville's Nathan Shuler -- the Region III champion -- to earn one of his team's two semifinals spots.

For the Cougars, each point matters as they try to win back the team championship from Glenvar. Advancement points matter, and the Cougars have accrued many on the strength of those seven semifinalists. Bonus points are helping as well; Manassas Park wrestlers combined for 10 pins in the championship bracket, which adds to the Cougars' totals.

"We cannot have a bad match. Everybody's got to be on their top game every single match in order for us to come through and win this," Cougars coach Ward Hugh said. "We feel we are our worst enemies right now. If we wrestle to our abilities, we should win a state title. But if we have some guys who have bad matches, lose out early, fold it in, we're in trouble."

Despite the frequency of the Cougars' first-day pins, not all of them came easily. Heavy-weight Austin Wren had to rally for a first-period pin of Franklin's Carl Harris in the first round and had a surmountable 5-0 lead before pinning Lee's T.J. Thomas to make it to the semifinals. Others, however, did: 160-pounder Daniel McGillivray needed only 55 seconds to get out of the first round.

And, in some cases, bonus points were not a concern at all. At 119, Raphael Gonzalez didn't lead Grayson County's Richard Pugh until the third period, using a late take-down to take the lead before holding on for the 4-3 victory. At that point, merely winning was what mattered.

But that was the closest of any of the Cougars' quarterfinal matches; the next closest were Elmar Aparicio's 9-3 win over Castlewood's Ryan Phillips -- the Region D champion -- at 215 and 103-pounder Thien Tran's 7-0 win over Radford's Christian Reuwer. Maximo Gonzalez (112 pounds) and Jean Carlos Taveras (130) were Manassas Park's other semifinalists.

Hugh stressed that his two wrestlers that didn't make the semis -- 125-pounder Guppy Higginbottom and 152-pounder Rob Howe -- were just as important to the Cougars' title hopes.

"We've just got to get these other two guys in wrestlebacks to come through," Ward said.

Howe was a 12-2 winner in his first consolation match; Higginbottom's first match came in the second round of consolations, which ended too late for publication.

Crane started off quickly in his win over Shuler; he parlayed a takedown into three nearfall points, taking a quick 5-0 lead that Shuler never came close to matching.

"Once I got that, he started wrestling scared and defensive," Crane said. "And he wasn't really trying to score anymore."

Shuler did rally early in the third. Starting the period on top, Shuler came close to pinning Crane, but couldn't hold the move. The three back points where Shuler's only points of the match.

After a quiet first period in the quarterfinals, Region II champ Nathan Watts got his first point on a technical violation by Lafayette's Shawn Sweaney. Seconds later Watts added an escape, giving him a two-point lead and a bit of breathing room against one of the Group AA's top 215-pounders. Watts scored a takedown early in the third and used the position to earn a 4:51 pin.

"I've been sort of on Watts' case, because he only started wrestling last year," Brentsville coach Jess Moore said. "He was just sort of a football player out here, doing wrestling. But he looked like a wrestler today. He did a good job."

The Tigers did suffer a loss in the quarterfinals when 160-pounder Wade Swede couldn't overcome a second-period escape by Del Bryce, the Region I champion from Poquoson. After electing to start the third period in neutral -- Moore said Swede has struggled with escaping -- Swede couldn't convert a takedown over the final two minutes.