High school wrestling: Wildcats pack the podium in state tournament triumph

Sep 10, 2023

Brooke Point’s Cadell Lee (top) takes down Mountain View’s Nicholas Sanders in the 113-pound final during Saturday's VHSL Class 5 wrestling championships at the Virginia Beach Sports Center.

VIRGINIA BEACH — Maybe it’s fitting that Tyler Traves couldn’t identify the exact set of shoulders upon which he exited the mat Saturday night following his 144-pound state finals match.

While the Mountain View freshman had certainly earned his celebratory send-off, it was a truly collective effort that lifted the Wildcats to their first team state title in program history.

Mountain View brought 10 wrestlers to the Virginia Beach Sports Center this weekend. Every single one of them will return to Stafford with both a medal and a stake in the Class 5 championship trophy. The Wildcats (191 points) held off Region 5D champion Riverbend and halted the six-year dynasty of Brooke Point en route to claiming their first team title in program history.

“You just don’t do that,” said Wildcats coach Bud Black, who was installed in January following the dismissal of Gary Woods II. “You don’t bring 10 and place 10. They showed a lot of freaking heart.”

As a result, the Wildcats had already mathematically clinched the team title heading into the finals round, when Traves bested Riverbend’s Carson Main for the first time in their four meetings this season.

“States was the goal,” Traves said following his 7–2 triumph. “It’s really the one that matters. So I kept that in the back of my head, instead of the short term, I thought about the long-term goal.”

Junior Corey Bell celebrated his 4–1 win at 175 pounds by flopping to the mat and performing “the worm,” while 215-pounder Isaac Castrejon stunned First Colonial’s Sydney Huff with a 3–1 sudden victory to punctuate Mountain View’s banner night.

For Brooke Point, standout sophomores Cadell Lee and Chase Van Hoven added a second framed bracket to their trophy cases, while senior Parker Trahan concluded his Black-Hawks career as a 132-pound state champion.

At 190 pounds, Remus Montalvo got the final say in his protracted feud with Riverbend’s Jacob Wright. A week after falling to Wright in a close decision at regions, Montalvo left little doubt in Saturday’s 12–6 victory.

In Class 4, Eastern View finished a distant runner-up to Great Bridge in the team standings. The Cyclones crowned individual state champions in 215-pounder Brett Clatterbaugh and heavyweight Brayden Walker. Orange County got finals victories from Waylon Rogers (106 pounds) and Justin Jones (113) to finish third, one point in front of fourth-place Spotsylvania.

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