Herndon Sends Seven Wrestlers to 6A Regionals

Provided:

The Herndon wrestling team placed fifth at the Conference 5 tournament. A total of seven Hornets qualified for the northern region tournament as a result of their finishes at the tournament. That group includes junior Andrew Synott at 113, senior Bo Shull at 120, senior Jacob Moberly at 126, junior H.T. Elston at 138, and junior Sam Milligan at 152, sophomore Tommy Carnogursky at 170, and senior Arbaz Hussain at 220.

“We’re really happy with how the guys wrestled. To be honest, it wasn’t the best week of practice. A couple guys were nursing injuries or out with sickness, so they weren’t able to practice. It’s hard to keep the energy and intensity level up when there are only a handful of wrestlers in the room. However, the wrestlers went out there and competed hard despite the circumstances, and we’re pleased with the outcome,” Coach Gonzales said about his team’s performance.

Tommy Carnogursky, only in his second year of wrestling, had missed the week of practice leading up to conference because of illness. Despite being out for the week, he was able to reach the 170 pound finals. He defeated Robinson’s Brian Brooks 5-2 in the semi-finals, before dropping a 4-13 major decision to Chantilly’s Lucas Kinsey in the finals.

In the 220 pound weight class, Senior Arbaz Hussain, had a come-from-behind pin in the semi-finals against Centreville’s Lawrence Wright to punch his ticket to the conference finals. Hussain was down 1-6 going into the third period of the match. He started the period on top, and was able to turn Wright to his back, and eventually pin him for the win. In the finals, Hussain squared off with Brian Kim of Chantilly. Kim, an all-state wrestler from last season, was able to score a takedown in the 2nd period and hold on to a tight 3-2 decision.

Junior H.T. Elston qualified for his third regional tournament in as many years. Elston placed 3rd in the conference as a freshmen, and was fourth as a sophomore.

“H.T. put in a real gutsy performance this weekend. He was battling illness all week, and we didn’t know if he was going to be able to compete until the very last minute. After his loss in the semi-finals, he was able to gut out two straight victories to take home a 3rd place medal. He showed a lot of toughness out there,” Coach Gonzales said of Elston’s performance.

152lber Sam Milligan arguably had some of the most exciting matches of the tournament. He faced off with the #1 seed Emmanuel Mugoya of Chantilly in the semi-finals. Both wrestlers scored takedowns and escapes in the match, and the score was knotted up at 3-3 at the end of regulation. After several flurries in the overtime period, Mugoya was able to score a takedown to take the 5-3 decision. Milligan was then able to wrestle-back to the consolation finals, where he met Westfield’s Matt Schlink in the 3rd/4th place match. Milligan was down 2-3 in the third period. Several of his shot attempts were thwarted as the wrestlers went out of bounds with four seconds left in the match. When the whistle blew to restart the match, Milligan went on the offensive and was able to score a last-second takedown to earn a highly contested 4-3 victory and finish in third place.

Senior Bo Shull, the #4 seed going into the tournament, wrestled up to his seed, by finishing 4th at 120 pounds. This is the second trip to regions for Shull, as he qualified as a sophomore at 106 pounds.

“Bo’s been a leader on the team all year, and we’re happy that he has another opportunity to wrestle at regionals,” Coach Gonzales said about his senior captain.

Senior Jacob Moberly entered the tournament unseeded, but was able to upset the fourth-seeded Justin Meeks of Westfield in an elimination match by a major decision, 14-1, to punch his ticket to regionals.

Another unseeded Herndon wrestler, junior Andrew Synnott, was to win a 4-2 match in the consolation semi-finals against Chantilly’s fourth-seeded Jason Martin to earn his bid to regionals.

Robinson won the team title, totaling 214.5 points, while Chantilly was second at 185.5 points, and Centerville was third with 162.5 points. Westfield was fourth with 158.0 points while Herndon finished fifth with 79.5 points. Oakton was sixth at 33 points.

The 6A Northern Region Tournament will take place February 13-14 at Centreville High School. The competition begins Friday afternoon at 2:30pm. The championship finals are set for 6:30pm on Friday night.

Below are the results:

• Andrew Synnott, 4th at 113
• Bo Shull, 4th at 120
• Jacob Moberly, 4th at 126
• H.T. Elston, 3rd at 138
• Sam Milligan, 3rd at 152
• Tommy Carnogursky, 2nd at 170
• Arbaz Hussain, 2nd at 220