Wrestling: Freedom's Timbers Wins AAA State title, Young is Runner-up; Stone Bridge's Faul Third

(Feb. 23, 2012) - Loudoun had an amazing weekend at the Virginia High School League AAA state wrestling meet with two Freedom athletes making the finals with DaQuante Timbers becoming the school's first ever state champion at 285 pounds and Tyler Young taking runner-up at 182.

Stone Bridge senior Jonathan Faul finished his career with a school record 123 victories as he took third at 152.


After qualifying two wrestlers through a brutal Northwest Region, the Freedom grapplers made the most of their opportunities, wrestling a near perfect weekend at the state championships at Robinson High School.

The two Eagles had very different roads to the finals as Timbers was the favorite to win his weight class, dominating his competition in Virginia this year and Young was predicted by many not to even place.

Despite this, Young battled throughout the entire tournament winning close matches. Young's first match was a 5-3 decision over Andy Hogue of Mills Godwin High School. Young grinded out a 5-1 lead in the third period before Hogue caught a two point reversal to narrow the gap, but it was not enough to overcome Young's lead.

In his second match, Young won a 7-3 decision over the Northern Region champion Nick Hoy of Madison. This was a rematch of an overtime match in the semifinals of the NOVA Classic, that Young had won. This time Young did not need the extra period, as he scored a series of three take downs to win in convincing fashion, securing a medal for the Freedom Senior.

The semifinal match placed Young against another regional champion, the unbeaten 37-0 Stacey Kennedy of Oscar Smith. The first period of action was slow as neither person scored. With choice in the second Young would score first with a one point escape just six seconds into the second period.

After a couple of missed opportunities by both wrestlers, Kennedy would tie the score in the 3rd period 1-1, sending the match into overtime. After, no scoring took place in the sudden death period and an exchange of escapes in the next two overtime periods, Young chose down for the final sudden death period.

If Young escaped he would win and if Kennedy could hold Young down for 30 seconds, the match would be his. After a couple of close attempts by Young in which Kennedy ran him out of bounds, he managed to get to his feet with twelve seconds left and turn in.

Kennedy dropped down onto the senior's leg hoping to hold on for the final nine seconds but the Young pulled his leg out and escaped with just six seconds remaining on the clock, much to the joy of the Eagle faithful which had made the trip.

Timbers on the other hand reached the finals through a series of dominating matches.

Timbers' first match was a 48 second pin over Hanover's Zach Erb, which he followed with a 1:10 second pin over Oscar Smith's Donte Freeman (who would later finish 7th). Timbers' closest match came in the smeifinals when he got a rematch of his NOVA Classic final match against Marshall's Matt Crawford. Timbers' used a series of five take downs and two sets of back points to score a lopsided 15-6 decision over Crawford, putting Timbers into the finals with his teammate.

In the finals Timbers would meet defending AAA state runner up Jake Pinkston of Robinson in a rematch from early in the season. In the previous match Timbers had caught Pinkston with a big throw early in the match to pin him, but the rematch would prove to last longer as neither wrestler scored in the first period.

In the second period, Pinkston would choose down and much to the delight of his home crowd would score a two point reversal on Timbers, nearly putting the Eagle senior on his back. Timbers would quickly recover by scoring an escape and getting to his feet.

Timbers would then take the lead by snapping Pinkston down to the mat and scoring a spin behind to take a 3-2 lead midway through the 2nd. Timbers then went to work, attacking the arm of the Robinson wrestler and pulling it across his back to force it into a pinning combination. Seconds later, the crowd would erupt as Timbers pinned Pinkston to become Freedom's first ever state wrestling champion.

Together the two boys would accumulate 47 team points and finish in 11th place as a team, just three points behind 10th place Salem. This would put them ahead of such AAA powerhouses as Great Bridge, Osbourn Park, Hopewell, Oscar Smith and Cox.

Faul, the third seed out of the Northern Region, knocked off the second seed from the Central Region, Cosby's Greg Delano, 5-2, to start the tournament and then upset Grassfield's Ryan Fairbee, the Eastern Region champion, 2-0, to advance to the semifinals.

Forest Park's Kevin Johnson, the Northwest Region champion, beat Faul, 7-1, but the Bulldog recovered to beat Orange County's Ryan Almond, 3-0, and then in a rematch with Fairbee, Faul was again two points better, this time winning 4-2 to claim third place.


Complete results