Northwest wrestlers come through in the clutch

Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2007

Northwest wrestlers come through in the clutch

by Dan Greenberg | Staff Writer

E-mail this article \ Print this article

Welcome to the home stretch of Montgomery County wrestling — late January and early February. With regional dual meets at stake, in which only four teams get the chance to vie for a state title, any loss is devastating. This is the time where one meet, or even one match within a meet, can separate the elite from the merely good.

Northwest coach Joe Vukovich knows the ropes well. The ninth-year coach was at the helm when his Jaguars won its first and last regional title two years ago, and he coached Northwest (10-1 record) to another appearance in the regional tournament last year. After hearing that his team would make next week’s 4A-3A West Region dual-meet tournament if it could win its final three dual meets of the season, he let his team know that the time is now. The first obstacle, a tri-meet which included a dangerous Sherwood (6-5) team, was the toughest. That’s why Northwest’s 44-28 victory over Sherwood and its 63-9 toppling of host Blair Saturday were so important.

‘‘February starts the drive for championships, and we got word that if we won out, we control our own destiny for duals,” Vukovich said. ‘‘We needed to go 2-0 and we met that goal. It is an honor, a prestigious thing to earn the right to go to the final four. And it’s exciting because you don’t know what will happen when you lose a match. We lost a heartbreaker to Damascus earlier this season, but luckily we’re in position to control our own destiny.”

Northwest has two dual-meet dates left: Wednesday at home against Churchill (6 p.m.) and Saturday’s tri-meet with Parkdale and Seneca Valley at Seneca Valley (1 p.m.).

Win those and the Jags may get the chance to avenge their Dec. 16 loss to Damascus in the playoffs next week thanks to their total team effort on Saturday. As expected, they had trouble with Sherwood’s incomparable middleweights, including three county champions. Warrior seniors Adam Lowy (137 pounds)and Rhett Beattie (142), as well as sophomore Steven Gamble (152), did what they have done all season and most of their careers — win. With two wins and a forfeit between them, they made up all the points Northwest earned early in the match, and when Darrell Carter (162) pinned Northwest’s Andrew White, Sherwood grabbed the lead with only four weight classes remaining.

But the Jaguars weren’t about to let their postseason chances slip away. They won from there on out, with Jake Cone (173) and David Larson (217) winning by forfeit, and John Page (191) and Williams Bond (heavyweight) taking home a major decision and pin victory, respectively.

‘‘It’s kind of all in about where you get best matchups,” Vukovich said. ‘‘We were both jockeying for advantage in momentum, especially in the beginning because we know tough the middle is — just dynamite state and county title winners with Lowy, Beattie and Gamble. They’re awesome in there so you know you’ve got to have a lead going in there so you can close it out at the end.”

That’s exactly what they did, picking up four victories in the first five classes. Michael Henning (105) and Northwest’s top wrestler, Sean McCarty (132) won by pins, with Jason Edwards (121) and Danny Aguilera (127) winning in decisions.

Alex Hakspiel (112) picked up a major decision win for the Warriors, but they could not finish the meet off strongly. It’s been a common theme for Sherwood, who has tremendous talent but not depth.

‘‘Our upperweights are so young, freshmen and sophomores, I actually thought they were pretty tough,” said Sherwood coach Scott Beattie. ‘‘You know, we’ve got some really good kids and they tend to win, it’s kind of up to their supporting cast.”

Sherwood topped Blair, 60-12, in the third leg of the tri-meet.