Hanover invited some of the top teams in the state to its Hawks Duals wrestling tournament last Friday. Benedictine was among 16 teams, representing all four VHSL Group AAA regions, one Group AA team, one Group A team, and one private school came to Mechanicville to grapple with the question, “Who’s best?”

  The host Hawks found out they were one of the best, but in the end lost to Ocean Lakes High School of Virginia Beach in the tournament title match. Benedictine finished in 10th place after falling to Hermitage in the final consolation match.

  In addition to Hanover and Ocean Lakes, AAA competition included local teams Lee-Davis, Deep Run, Hermitage, J.R. Tucker, James River and Midlothian; Hickory of Chesapeake; James Madison of Vienna, Mountain View of Centreville; North Stafford; and Salem of Virginia Beach. Louisa represented Group AA. Northumberland represented Group A. Benedictine was the only private school competing.

  Chris Barnhart, coach of the winning Ocean Lakes team, enjoyed the challenge.

  “There’s 16 good teams here. Each team has four or five tough guys,” Barnhart said. “It’s good for regional and state experience. That’s what you want afterwards. We’ve got a month left in the season and we want to get kids as far as we can in the state tournament.”

  In all, the schools offered 21 of the top-ranked wrestlers in the state, according to the Web site VirginiaWrestling.com. The title match between Hanover and Ocean Lakes brought together two of the site’s top 10 teams: Ocean Lakes is ranked No. 2, while Hanover is No. 10.

  The teams competed in five matches over the course of the day. By the time the final round began, endurance played a big role in the outcome.

  “It’s tough. Five is the most you can have in a day,” said Hanover head coach Aaron Bradley. “When you get down to that fifth one, some of those matches are going to come down to conditioning – who’s been working hard over the holiday break and who’s been making sure they’re getting their workouts in.”

  The short-handed Cadets, who were missing some of their main wrestlers because of injuries, had the misfortune of drawing Ocean Lakes in the first round and as a result were beaten fairly soundly.

  “It was great experience,” said Benedictine coach Ryan Hall. “We got our butts handed to us a little bit, we got kicked around, but our boys wrestled hard and that’s what it’s all about.”

  Despite its struggles, Benedictine earned a berth competing for ninth place against Hermitage, but the Cadets fell to the Panthers and added to their injury woes when their heavyweight, John Mosier, had to withdraw from a match he was leading because of what appeared to be a strained muscle in his rib cage.

  Mosier tried to go on, but Hall, not wanting to see Mosier aggravate the injury, conceded the match. Mosier’s determination, typical of the Cadets, gives Hall some hope.

  “The learning and the technique,” that will come. “But the fact that they enjoy competing, and competed hard – that’s the main thing moving forward. If you’ve got that, you can learn how to wrestle.”