Martino takes all Saturday
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By Brian Hunsicker
Published: February 23, 2008
“He did it, man,” Greg Martino said before a playful punch to his brother’s chest.
Prince William County’s other entrant, Gar-Field’s Porker Bowers, narrowly missed overtime and fell to Colonial Forge’s Oscar Huntley 5-3.
Martino’s win gave the area its first state champ since 2004, when Forest Park’s Bryan Evans and Woodbridge’s Ivan Lagares both brought home championships.
Martino and Hunsberger – who had met during the Cedar Run District and Northwest Region tournaments – had a largely quiet first period. Martino was warned for stalling in an otherwise scoreless period.
Hunsberger broke free for an escape to start the second as both wrestlers settled into the dance they had employed throughout the first. In the third period with Hunsberger in control, Martino quickly made it to his feet twice. On the second attempt, as Hunsberger tried to hold on, Martino found himself on top. While his control wasn’t textbook, it was enough to earn the two-point reversal.
“I stood up and he dropped my ankle,” Martino said. “And I was able to sort of spin around behind him.”
Martino held off Hunsberger’s attempts in the final minute to secure the 2-1 win, the Bobcats’ first state championship. After shaking hands with Fauquier’s coaches, he sprinted and jumped into the arms of his brother.
“I was so happy for him, because I had been there before,” Greg Martino, a freshman at NYU who lost in the state finals to Great Bridge’s Daniel Frishkorn. “So I knew the feeling of just getting there. And for him to win it, I was just so happy for him.”
“It hasn’t really hit me yet,” Beau Martino said, “but I’m sure it will pretty soon.”
Bowers was trying for Gar-Field’s first title since 1986. His match against Huntley was a rematch of the Northwest Region semifinals, which Huntley won when Bowers injured his ankle and was unable to continue.
His ankle looked fine during his first three matches and wasn’t a factor for much of the finals. After a scoreless first period, Bowers scored first on a second-period reversal. But he was unable to maintain the position for the rest of the period and gave up a reversal to Huntley later in the period, tying the score at 2-2. Just before the end of the second, Bowers appeared to re-injure his ankle, though Indians coach Rick Seipp later said the ankle wasn’t much of a hindrance.
In the third, Huntley added another reversal to take the lead. With less than a minute left, Bowers was called for his second stalling violation, giving Huntley a three-point lead. Both wrestlers tumbled out of bounds with 10 seconds left, and Bowers quickly escaped to cut the lead to two. With time running out, Bowers made a final shot and was in position for the takedown to send the match to overtime, but he couldn’t complete the move before the buzzer sounded.
“He made a couple of strategic mistakes, but that’s fine,” Seipp said. “He wrestled his heart out. He wrestled hard the whole time out. That’s all I can ask.”
Colonial Forge won the team title, clinching its second straight team title before any of its five wrestlers took the mat for the finals. That left perennial power Great Bridge – whose streak of 10 straight titles was snapped by the Eagles last year – to battle with Fauquier for second place.
The Eagles’ championship marks the first time since 1982 that the East Region has been shut out of a wrestling title in consecutive years. The intervening years have been dominated by Great Bridge, who had finished in the top two every year since 1985, including 18 titles.
Forest Park’s Stephen Hinton took the area’s only third, beating Henrico’s Charlie Lipford and ensuring that the Northwest Region took the top three spots at 103. Hinton lost to Hunsberger in the semifinals earlier on Saturday.
Gar-Field heavyweight Stephen Young took fourth in his final match for the Indians, losing for the second time in two days to T.C. Williams’ Quintas McCorkle. And again, stalling was a factor in McCorkle’s 5-1 win; he took the lead on two stalling calls against Young and sealed the win with a late takedown.
Other area medalists included Osbourn’s Bobby Gray (sixth at 171), Osbourn Park’s Eric Dromazos (seventh at 112), and Battlefield’s Allan Fary (seventh at 125).
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