Potomac Falls High School tied for second place in the team standings.—Courtesy Photo

Potomac Falls High School senior Mike Linza entered this wrestling season with no real expectations.

Whereas his goals do not differ from what one would expect from any wrestler entering his senior season, Linza simply did not know what to expect coming back from a torn ACL injury that cost him his entire junior campaign.

His showing Dec. 17 at the 33rd annual Terry McGowan Invitational might help shape expectations for the rest of season. Linza defeated Trevor Weymouth of Foxcroft Academy (Maine) 5-2 in the 132-pound championship match to earn a spot atop the podium.

“I don’t really know what I’m expecting,” he said. “I was out the whole season. This was actually the first tournament I’ve been back for. I want to be a district champ, a region champ and place at states.”

Linza’s championship was one of two earned by Potomac Falls, as the Panthers accumulated 177.5 points to tie West Potomac for second place at the tournament, hosted by the Sterling Lions at Park View High School in Sterling. Sherando totaled 202 to earn the team trophy.

Loudoun wrestlers combined to win a total of five individual titles, with Loudoun Valley earning a pair and the host Patriots one.

Linza advanced to his final with wins over local wrestlers, but had the opportunity to wrestle an unfamiliar opponent in the final.

“I heard he was a state placer from Maine,” Linza said of Weymouth. “Everyone has a different style. Mine is pretty easy to feel out, so I like wrestling the guy’s from far away that I won’t see again.”

The Potomac Falls senior scored with an early takedown to take a lead he would never relent in going on to take the match by decision. Earlier, Louis Ives had brought home the Panthers’ first title of the tournament with a convincing 8-4 decision over Bishop O’Connell’s Scott Kurtzke at 106. Ives won his first two matches by fall in advancing to the final. Zach Causey also reached the final for Potomac Falls at 170 pounds, but dropped a tight 4-2 decision to West Potomac’s Nicholas Africano.

Loudoun Valley’s Josh Cassada (160) and David Garvis (182), as well as Park View’s Ronald Cruz also won titles. Trailing by a point late in the third period of the heavyweight championship bout, Cruz pulled out a fall with nine seconds left against Sherando’s B.J. Askew.

Coming off a title the previous weekend at a tournament in West Virginia, Cassada came from behind against Woodgrove’s Joe Cavallaro to win the 160-pound crown by a 6-5 count. The Viking junior trailed 5-3 at the conclusion of two periods, but earned an escape point and then was awarded two points for stalling calls on Cavallaro to snag the victory.

“It was a good match,” said Cassada, who noted he finished fourth in the tournament last year. “It was a long day. This was my second tournament this season. I was happy to get out of here. I’m starting to see the work in the wrestling room pay off on the mat.

“I wrestled [Cavallaro] last year in the first round here, too. I had a feeling I could win this match with my style. I knew he would try to head drag me and throw me down. I just had to make sure I stayed away from that a little bit.”

Garvis did not log too much mat time at the tournament, earning each of his three wins by fall with just one stretching into the second period. The senior needed just 79 seconds to polish off West Potomac’s Zachary Prinzbach in the 182-pound final.

“I didn’t know much about him,” Garvis, who was a returning champion from last year’s tournament, said of his finals opponent. “I hadn’t seen him before.”

Garvis pinned Sherando’s Gabe Mead in the semifinals in what he noted as a tough match.

“Last time I wrestled him it was 2-2 when I pinned him,” said Garvis, who set a school record with 38 pins a year ago. “He’s probably one of the best wrestlers I wrestled in the tournament. Too bad he wasn’t the second seed.”

Team Standings
1. Sherando - 202
2. West Potomac - 177.5
2. Potomac Falls - 177.5
4. Foxcroft Academy - 130
5. Woodgrove - 126
6. Loudoun Valley - 115
7. Herndon - 109
8. Park View - 101
9. Bishop O’Connell - 94
10. W.T. Woodson - 88
11. Falls Church - 51

Weight class finals
106: Ives (PF) def. Kurtzke (B), 8-4
113: Guthridge (S) def. Thompson (WP), 4-2
120: Vangel (S) pinned Smith (FA), 3:27
126: Pike (H) def. Kohlhaas (WTW), 6-4 OT
132: Linza (PF) def. Weymouth (FA), 5-2
138: Law (FA) def. Swords (WP), 6-3
145: Simon (FA) def. Segerdahl (W), 5-2
152: Mullaney (S) def. David (W), 13-0
160: Cassada (LV) def. Cavallaro (W), 6-5
170: Africano (WP) def. Causey (PF), 4-2
182: Garvis (LV) pinned Prinzbach (WP), 1:19
195: Thomas (FC) def. Hamilton (S), 11-4
220: Graham (B) def. Healy (H), 10-6
285: Cruz (PV) pinned Askew (S), 5:51