Led by a championship at 195, Bishop Ireton placed fourth in the 8-team event, drawing Catholic schools from across Virginia. Host Benedictine won the event with Paul VI second, Peninsula Catholic third.
Coach Kwinten Brown was happy with the Cardinals performance in the meet, many of his young grapplers showing their progress on the mat. Three other Cardinals joined Lovisone in the title matches, with Joey Siedlarz, Max Russell, and Gavin Webster earning second place team points for the Alexandria school. Sophomore Declan Sofield wrestled back for a 4th place finish and a number of Cardinals ended the day in 5th place.
Lovisone, a junior, pinned Bishop Sullivan’s Ben Murphy at 1:27 of their match, and the burly Cardinal dispatched Cory Snyder of PVI in 1:10 of their bout. The tourney’s outstanding wrestler capped the day with another fall, this one at 3:56 of the championship over Benedictine’s Chris McGee.
Max Russell, at 120, pinned O’Connell’s John Edmond at 4:23 in the opening match, then decked PVI’s Conlin Frank in 3:25, who had defeated him earlier in dual competition, before falling to the Cadets’ Brady Biller 7-2 in the championship.
Joey Siedlarz, at 182, earned a top seed and a bye in the opening round. He needed only 105 seconds to pin John Simms of St John Paul the Great before losing a 6-3 decision to Harry Young of Benedictine.
Second-seeded Gavin Webster wrestled at 285. The Ireton heavyweight decked Benedictine’s Bert Hinton at 3:46 of their match, then outpointed JPG’s Matthew Keller, 7-1 before Benedictine’s top-seeded Ian Williams won by a fall in the title match.
Declan Sofield opened his day in Richmond with a 7-1 decision over PVI’s Chase Huston before being pinned by Peninsula Catholic’s Sean Kiddy. Matt Kuehler of Roanoke Catholic ended Sofield’s day with a 10-4 win, placing Sofield in the fourth spot at 145.
Ireton’s Andrew Simoes (106) earned a 5th place finish, as did John Walsh at 126, Ben Siedlarz at 132, Andrew Gabowski at 138, at 160 Jordan Hansen,and Thomas Shoemaker at 220.
Cardinals head to Massenutten Military Academy for a quadrangular meet on Saturday.
Team Standings:
Benedictine 248
Paul VI 162
Peninsula Catholic 156
BISHOP IRETON 148
Bishop O’Connell 124
St John Paul, Great 105
Roanoke Catholic 64
Bishop Sullivan 29