CENTREVILLE WRESTLING

It was an up and down weekend for the Wildcats at Chantilly HS for the 2012 Concorde District Championships. The CATS came out flat in the first two rounds only winning 5 bouts.
Centreville rebounded in the next round and went on quite a run, putting three wrestlers in the finals and nine in the consolation finals. The Wildcats, along with Westfield, qualified the most wrestlers for the Region tournament each with 12. Westfield ran away with the team title with Robinson placing second, Oakton finishing third, and Centreville coming in 4th. Rounding out the District was Chantilly placing 5th and Herndon finishing 6th.
Ryan Sepulveda was crowned the 170 pound Champion in dominating fashion. Sepulveda manhandled his Robinson opponent in the finals on his way to his first District Title. Ryan came out extremely conservative in the first period, but began to open it up some in the second, before cruising to a dominant finish to his tournament. Things didn’t go so well for Centreville’s other two finalists. David Chenevey finished second behind Oakton’s Austin Murga. Murga came out and attacked Chenevey from the opening whistle until the final buzzer rang. Chenevey found himself on the defensive for the entire six minutes, unable to really generate any offense. A disappointing loss for the senior who dismantled Murga just two weeks ago.
At 220 pounds, Joe Steinbach fell victim to Westfield’s Mitch Polizzi for the second time this season, losing by decision. Steinbach never really got going in his match. The first period ended
0-0, with Polizzi choosing the bottom in the second period. 21 seconds into the period Polizzi escaped and the two 220 pounders took very few chances ending the period at 1-0. Feeling pretty good about tying the match at 1, Stenbach chose the bottom position to start the third. Polizzi proved to be too strong for Steinbach as he rode the Wildcat for the entire two minutes securing the 220 pound crown.
Going into the final rounds trailing Oakton by 14 points, the Wildcat light weights shook things up and made a race of it for the third place team finish. 106 pounder Chung Do Kim crushed his Herndon opponent on his way to a third place finish. Michael Vu followed with a pin of his own placing third. The two freshmen capped off their District competition and tournament in impressive fashion. At 120 pounds Joe Nowak finished 4th and Jerry Cowman placed 3rd at 126 pounds. Cowman faced Westfield’s Artie Pickett twice in the tournament and came away with victories in both matches. At 132 pounds Connor Mitchell avenged an earlier season loss to Herndon’s Sean Pike and defeated the Hornet earning himself a third place finish. Will fulton finished 4th along with teammate Tyler Love who suffered a serious injury just two days before the tournament. Love forfeited his consolation final match in hopes of healing in time for next weeks Regional Tournament at Hayfield HS. At 182 pounds Junior Connor Howell, seeded 6th in his bracket came out of the tournament placing 4th and earning a trip to Regions as well. Jason Park, Centreville’s light heavyweight finished 4th and he too will join the rest of the Wildcats at Friday’s Region tournament. Wrestling begins on Friday February 10th at noon.