Madison mat men break jinx

A little more than midway through the match, Madison County Head Coach Mike Sacra began doing the mental math in fast forward motion. He recognized the inevitable: the outcome against Tuscarora would be decided on criteria.

That was the last place he wanted it to go.

And understandably so.

The Mountaineers were 0-3 this season in matches decided on criteria and Coach Sacra had no reason to think this time would be any different.

Tied 42-42 at the conclusion of the match, Sacra huddled his wrestlers together as the official retrieved the rule book to determine the winner.

Deep down the list of criteria, the outcome was finally decided on the ninth criterion, letter “i,” the team that had scored the most amount of points off of near falls.

Thanks to the 6 scored by Jacob Welch (120), Madison was declared the winner and finally broke the jinx called criteria.

“We didn’t win any matches last season on criteria and we hadn’t won any this year,” said Sacra. “I didn’t expect us to come out on top.”

The drama unfolded at Saturday’s “Mountaineer Classic,” the final stop of the regular season where the host Mountaineers went 3-2 and where four-time defending Battlefield District champion Chancellor claimed the first-place trophy and Group AAA’s Brooke Point finished as the runner-up.

Individually, Welch, Anthony Jewett (160), Justin Farry (195) and JP Utz (220) all went 5-0 on the day and Dylan Banks (138) went 4-1, while Jeff Foster (152) and Jared Chamberlain (182) both finished at 3-1.

Derek Rakes (170) and Thomas Shifflett (285) finished at 3-2, Rodney Fox (106/113) went 1-3 and Matt Beeler (106) and newcomer Daniel Adams (145) both finished at 1-4.

The team was without the services of Chris McHaney (182), who is expected to return to action this weekend.

The event witnessed the presence of 12 teams divided into four pools of three teams each.

Madison opened the event with a 66-6 win over Blacksburg, whose Bruins had only three wrestlers in the lineup, and then lost a squeaker to Washington-Lee, 40-39, to finish 1-1 in its pool.

Madison then faced Nottoway, which was reclassified this season from Group AA to Group A and now a member of Region B. The Cougars prevailed 48-36. Madison then faced Western Albemarle for the second time in three days. Though the Mountaineers edged the Warriors by only 2 points at last Wednesday’s tri-match at Charlottesville High School, Madison put an exclamation mark on this match and claimed a 15-point margin of victory, 45-30.

In the final match of the day, Madison and Tuscarora battled to a 42-42 tie before the god of criteria finally smiled on Madison.

At last Wednesday’s tri-match, Madison hammered Charlottesville 63-6 and then edged Western Albemarle 42-40 in which the decisive bout came at 152 pounds, where Foster and Myciah Fitzwater made the first period of their match a high-scoring affair.

Each wrestler scored 9 points and the match was tied at 9 going into the second period.

In the second, Fitzwater had choice and deferred and Foster promptly chose down.

Before he took position, he looked over at Assistant Coach Shane Conlon who advised him to slow down the pace.

Foster scored a quick reversal, put Fitzwater on his back, and stuck him just 0:40 into the second period.

After the match, Foster had no explanation for why he and Fitzwater scored so many points in the first period but the outcome was easier to break down.

“Coach Conlon told me to slow down. [In the second period] I looked back and got [Fitzwater where I wanted him].”

Fitzwater got the last word on Saturday when he and Foster met once more.

Foster suffered an injury to a rib muscle which took the fight out of him and he succumbed to Fitzwater in 0:54.

Foster sat out the last match against Tuscarora but is expected to be healthy for this weekend’s Bull Run District Tournament at Strasburg High School, where action is set to begin at 10 a.m.

The top six finishers in each weight class will return to Strasburg the following weekend for the Region B Tournament.

Going into the post season, Madison has five wrestlers who have reached the 30-plus wins plateau.