Benedictine finishes third in state wrestling tournament

ROBBY FLETCHER Sports Editor

Hosting the VISAA State Wrestling Tournament for the second straight year, the Benedictine Cadets took to their home mats on Feb. 17-18 at the McMurtrie-Reynolds Pavilion looking to build off a second place finish from last year.

While they didn’t achieve the same silver placement, they came awful close, finishing third this time around with St. Christopher’s winning the tournament and Paul VI taking second place.

Of the 10 Cadets to compete at the tournament, nine placed within the top-6 and one came away a state champion.

Junior Brycen Arbogast (23-5) was that winner to lead his Cadets, taking the 132-pound title a year after claiming the title in the 120-pound state finals.

The Cadets star made quick work of his first three opponents, winning his opening two matchups with pins within the first minute before dominating the quarterfinals against Cape Henry Collegiate’s Thomas Radich with a 15-0 tech fall.

He battled in two close battles from there in order to claim the gold, first beating St. Christopher’s Walker Turley in a dogfight finish that ended in a 9-7 decision. Arbogast took the lead early with a takedown and a reversal in the opening two minutes to take a 4-2 lead, but Turley was superior in the third period with an escape and a takedown to make it a 6-5 lead in Arbogast’s favor entering a nailbiter third period.

After an early escape from Arbogast, Turley tied up the match with 1:40 remaining with a takedown. It was then that Arbogast turned in the biggest move of his tournament to that point, reversing around Turley and picking up the deciding two points with just three seconds remaining in the match.

He had a quick turnaround before the biggest match of the night: a battle with Luke Murray from Peninsula Catholic in the title match. Murray led 2-1 out of the first period in the final, though Arbogast was quick to adjust after that, holding Murray from there and running off four unanswered points to win another state title.

The Cadets also had four second place finishers, with 120-pound Sam Parsons, 138-pound Lane Foard, 144-pound Brady Bollander and 157-pound Ronin Foldes all taking runner-up honors.

Parsons impressed with pins in his first two matchups against Norfolk Christian’s Autumn Smith and Roanoke Catholic’s Addison Becker. In the semifinals, he picked up 14 points and held Paul VI’s Trey McKinney to half of that output to cement himself as a finalist in his class. Though he fell by an early pin in the finals against St. Christopher’s Drew Roggie, it was a solid showing for Parsons in his first appearance at the state tournament.

Meanwhile for Bollander, he kicked off the tournament at his home gym with a 14-6 major decision win against Woodberry Forest’s Cayden Sanchez, then proceeded to pin Catholic High’s Cooper Green right before the end of the first period to advance to the quarterfinals.

He held St. Stephens’ Aidan Koch scoreless in that matchup while earning eight points of his own, including a three-point near fall with 1:15 left in the match that could’ve given him another pin.

He then held his next opponent to just one point in the semifinals, beating Norfolk Academy’s Tucker Gaddy 8-1 and again picking up a three-point near fall at the same time as his previous matchup.

In the final, he met a wrestler that finally had the skill to beat him, with St. Christopher’s Tyler Hood winning first prize with a 14-5 victory, though Bollander went out admirably with four escapes in the final period.

A year after winning the 113-pound class, Foard had another standout performance, this time in a bigger weight class. After pins in his first two rounds, he was unstoppable in his third match versus Cape Henry Collegiate’s Nolan Sharp, ending the match early again with an 18-2 technical fall.

Foard nearly won the whole tournament, but St. Christopher’s Cale Roggie did just enough to gain the edge in the final. After trailing 4-2 at the end of the first period and cutting it down to 4-3 with an escape at the end of two, Foard looked ready to complete the comeback in the final two minutes, but Roggie had an early escape and takedown to get just enough of an edge over Foard, winning 7-4.

Foldes made a big improvement from his fifth place finish in the 145-pound class last year, winning his opener with a pin in 26 seconds, his quarterfinals matchup against Paul VI’s Finn McMahon in a 14-2 major decision and his semifinals duel against St. Christopher’s Liam Johnson with a 5-0 decision. He ultimately lost to Norfolk Academy’s Logan Pausch in a close 8-5 decision in the final.

Benedictine’s other state-placers include fourth place finishes from Luke Houchins at 106 pounds and James Ortuno at 120 pounds, a fifth place finish from Christian Ferrell at 150 pounds and a sixth place finish from Ryan Nguyen at 165 pounds.