Sports

Season-opening wrestling tournament brings out 30+ squads

With two individual champions and 14 wrestlers scoring points, the Westfield Bulldogs won the annual season-opening NOVA Classic.

The two-day event with more than 30 high-school teams was held Dec. 6 and 7 at Fairfax High School.

Westfield won with 227 points. West Springfield was second with 207 and Fairfax was third with 187.

The two champions for Westfield were Jake Brubaker at 165 pounds and Merritt Clinton at 175. Brendan Sholders was second for Westfield at 132. Third were Josh Kim at 144 and Will Bowen at 186. Fourth were Aiden LuCente (120), Carson Easlick (138) and Noah Ayers (157).

Adam Husseini (113) was the champion for West Springfield.

For Fairfax, Kross Cassidy won at 157 and Johanna Jose (106) and Harry Maltese (215) were second.

For fourth-place Marshall, Ethan Lebkisher won at 190 pounds and Luis Malave (144) was second.

McLean High’s Jacob Daly won the title at 126 to help the team finish 11th.

Aiden Sanders of South Lakes finished first at 150.

About the Author

  • Dave Facinoli grew up in Prince George’s County, Md. and attended Friendly High School. After attending Prince’s George Community College and James Madison University, where he covered sports on both college papers, he launched a local newspaper career that included roles as the sports editor of the Alexandria Gazette, the Arlington Sun Gazette and GazetteLeader, and other local papers.