Sunday, February 21, 2010
No. 9 a thriller
A big finish keeps Christiansburg's run alive.
ERIC BRADY The Roanoke Times
Joey Dance of Christiansburg celebrates with Blue Demons coach Daryl Weber after Dance's major decision over Sean Van Dyke of Grundy (walking away) during the Group AA state wrestling tournament on Saturday at Salem Civic Center.
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With the economy in a tailspin, with state budget cuts on the horizon, with the stock market still a dicey proposition ... where would you make an investment in the future?
How about buying a piece of the guy who produces the championship T-shirts for Christiansburg's wrestling team?
Christiansburg broke out more high cotton Saturday night as the Blue Demons capture the VHSL Group AA wrestling title for the ninth consecutive year at Salem Civic Center.
For a change, this one was close.
Christiansburg edged Grundy 175-166 and did so with a lineup that will return eight of the 10 wrestlers the Blue Demons brought to Salem plus three other likely starters who were dismissed from the team at midseason.
Grundy won 12 straight Group AA titles from 1987-98 and owns 15 overall. Christiansburg's counter is heading toward double figures and doesn't appear to be stopping anytime soon.
"As far as I'm concerned, we're going to keep it going as long as we want," said Christiansburg coach Daryl Weber, who has been a part of all nine titles including the last four in charge of the dominant juggernaut. "I've got a lot of great people helping me out, parents, coaches and kids. Everybody's excited. This builds steam right here."
It was plenty warm inside the packed arena on a night that featured plenty of drama.
Christiansburg trailed Grundy 162-15412 heading into the finals as the two schools' partisan cheering sections took their usual posts on opposite sides of the civic center.
Ultimately, one side exploded while the other left deflated when junior Rich Eva clinched the title for Christiansburg with a pin in the 152-pound final over Ryan Weinstock of Chancellor.
"It felt really great," said Eva who won the 145-pound final in 2009. "I heard we were losing earlier in the day. I didn't let it affect me. If it came down to me, so be it. I was going to bust my [butt] to get it done."
Immediately after his win, Eva donned Christiansburg's latest design, a blue shirt that read, "9X state champions" on the back. Facing away from Christiansburg's fans, Eva's message to the other side of the arena was nine fingers held aloft.
"It was spontaneous," Eva said. "I had no idea I was going to do that. Last year it was all locked up and it was more about individual. This year it was about individual and the team."
Senior Devin Carter (130) and freshmen Zach Epperly (135) and Joey Dance (103) joined Eva atop the victory stand.
Timesland schools also produced two other individual champions -- Hidden Valley's David Williams (160) and Salem's Jake Semones (215).
Carter, who moved to Christiansburg from New Jersey before his freshman year, closed his brilliant prep career with a third straight state title, posting 21-6 technical fall over Fauquier's Greg Flournoy.
Only a loss in the 103-pound final as a freshman denied the Virginia Tech signee of being a four-time state champ.
"Yeah, I was light, inexperienced, just didn't come out on top that time," Carter said. "I'll start practicing tomorrow, getting ready for college."
Christiansburg's parade began with the 112-pound final where Dance scored a 10-2 major decision over Grundy's Sean Vandyke, who finished as a state runner-up for the second straight year.
Dance, who transferred to Christiansburg from the Tidewater area, bears a resemblance to a younger Carter, but the freshman doesn't want to hear it.
"I don't want to be considered Devin," Dance said. "I want to be considered as Joey Dance first."
Zach Epperly won his title at 135 in controversial fashion. The freshman edged Brookville's Zeb Stewart 4-2 in overtime, an outcome vigorously protested by Bees coach Don Shuler.
With a 2-1 lead, Epperly was assessed a penalty point for stalling, but the Brookville coach felt Stewart was not credited with an escape point during the exchange. Brookville was deducted one team point after the match for a salvo Shuler had for the officials.
"There's two things. When the top man's called for stalling they reset. They didn't do that," Shuler said. "Then they actually separated. He gave him one, then when the kid shot in again they took it back. That's not right. Then they didn't give enough time back after that."
Epperly said his job was in the circle.
"You keep wrestling," he said. "It was a hard decision."
Epperly's older brother, sophomore Brady Epperly lost to Grundy's Ethan Owens 6-4 in the 140-pound final.
Owens, who took a nasty tumble over one of the mat-side scoreboards onto the concrete, became Grundy's first state champ since 2003.
Blacksburg's Neal Kennedy, came up short in his bid to be a repeat state champion, losing 6-2 to Gage Swartz of James Wood in the 119-pound final.
Williams and Semones both became their respective schools' first state champions.
Williams, who decisioned Grundy's Tyler McClanahan, was an All-Group AA running back who received an appointed to the Naval Academy. How much better can life get?
"I don't know," the Hidden Valley senior said. "Football went great. Wrestling season ended with a state championship, which when I started in seventh grade that was my goal to win state. Now it's time to start preparing for football season next year."
Semones, a junior completed a 31-0 season in his hometown with a 7-5 decision over Sherando's Baxter Newman.
"My mind was focused on the match," Semones said. "Seeing it after the match, it all came together so perfectly."
Weber, who took over for Kevin Dresser as Christiansburg's coach in 2007, can say the same.
"When I first took over for Dresser, that's a tough situation to take over," Weber said. "If I win, it's because of what he did. If I lose, it's all my fault. I told somebody when I first took over, my true measuring stick will be five years from now. Next year will be my fifth year.
"I'm not going anywhere. I'm having too much fun."
