New Kent Charles City Chronicle

News for New Kent County and Charles City County, Virginia | March 28, 2024

New Kent High School wrestlers win Group 3A state team championship

By Andre Jones | February 16, 2019 9:54 pm

New Kent High School's wrestling team celebrate their state title in Salem after snapping Christiansburg's reign that lasted 17 years.

New Kent High School’s wrestling team has claimed the ultimate prize and won the Group 3A State Championship.

New Kent’s Trojans accumulated 200.5 points, upending 19-time winner Christiansburg High School, snapping their 17-year consecutive state title win streak. Christiansburg settled for runner-up with 190 points while Brentsville District finished in third with 122.5.

The Trojans monumental performance on the mat spawned several state champions. In the 113-pound division, Evan Holloway won a 4-2 decision of Christiansburg’s Luke Robie. In the 126-pound weight class, Domonic Baker earned a 6-4 decision victory over Christiansburg’s Garrett Kuchan while teammate Nicholas Vafiadis earned a 7-2 decision win over Brentsville’s Zoitos Carayiannis to win the state title in the 132-pound division.

New Kent’s Travis Ragland settled for silver as state runner-up in the 138-pound class, falling to Abingdon’s Jack Newton. Nathaniel Fly also finished second at the state match, falling to Turner Ashby’s Trey Hoover in the title match. Trojan 220-pound heavyweight Jamar Christian earned bronze at the event, defeating Abdingdon’s Ethan Roark. Raymond Goode claimed fourth in the 120-pound bracket while teammate Gannon Jones also earned fourth in the 152-pound division. Daniel Colgin finished in fifth place in the 106-pound weight division and teammate Buddy Whitecotton earned fifth in the 285-pound class.

An emotional New Kent Trojan head coach Mike Faus spoke about the experience and the realization of when they knew they were going to be crowned state champions.

“We clinched the title after [Nick] Vafiadis win,” he said. “We were up by 20.5 points and the most Christiansburg could score was 18.
“I thought we had a shot and a good shot this year, but I felt we were a year away,” Faus continued. “But today, we came up big.”

The head coach was quick to deflect credit onto who coaches and those who helped the program blossom into what it is today.

“We have a great coaching staff,” he said. “Coach John Goodbody has been here for a long time and Sonnie Close came to us from Christiansburg to help us this year.

“Mark Strickland’s Wrestling Predator Club was also instrumental to us,” Faus added. “This is a team thing and this is a family. I’m just a spoke on the wheel.”

Faus added that recent wins against Christiansburg in individual matches earlier in the season provided a confidence boost to the team.

“Dominic Baker defeated their undefeated state champion earlier this year,” the coach said. “That was a real boost to us and it provided that lift to know we could compete with them.”

In conclusion, Faus said the support from the community was something that he could never stop thanking them for.

“We had a good amount of travel and it’s a good haul for people to get out here to Salem to support us,” he said. “We had former wrestlers that graduated from the program come here, even going back to those who competed 10 years ago to come see us. That means a lot.”