Wrestling: Scott Blackstone, South County 'Wrestling Out of Their Minds,' Subdue Foes at NoVa Classic

South County's Scott Blackstone earned the individual title at 189-pounds to lead his school's wrestling team to a third-place finish out of 31 teams at the Northern Virginia Classic on Saturday night.

Blackstone vanquished Oakton's Austin Murga 4-2 in overtime to earn the title and the maximum 29 points for the Stallions, who finished behind only Westfield among AAA Northern Region teams.

Blackstone, a senior, was in coach Sean Anderson's doghouse at this time last year.

"My coach was ready to kick me off varsity," he recalled before his championship bout.

"I cut down to 160 and that just wasn't for me. ... It was just finding out what weight I should have been. I wasn't wrestling to my ability. I was just so weak at that time due to all the weight-cutting."

Junior Keegan Sullivan was the other South County wrestler to make it to the finals. Sullivan lost 8-3 to Van Grimes of Fauquier, but perhaps his key bout of the tournament came in the semifinals against Westfield's Harry Van Trees, a foe he is likely to see again this season.

"It was 15-10, it was all-around nonstop movement," he said. "Both of us went at it for all three periods. It was intense. It was fun winning, but it was tough."

In the wrestling season, the focus is almost completely on the district and regional meets, which determine state tournament berths.

While Sullivan and Blackstone agreed this early season tournament doesn't mean too much, they were glad to advance as far as they did.

"It's a great way to figure out who you're wrestling and who's out there and what you need to do and what to work on," Sullivan said.

Along with Blackstone and Sullivan, the Stallions had five other wrestlers receive medals, which were given to those finished eighth or better.

Austin Musfeldt finished fourth at 171-pounds; Hunter Manley (103), Brett Stein (140) and Zach Ayres (heavyweight) all earned fifth place medals and Tyler Howard (135) finished eighth.

"Last year pretty much our whole coaching staff changed. This year we're working a lot better with them because we trust them a lot more," Blackstone said. "We're able to work on a lot more moves in practice. We're about a month ahead of schedule compared to last year. That's making a world of difference."

And the change has been noticed by other teams in the region.

"South County, quite honestly, didn't have a great showing in regionals last year and we really didn't know what they were going to bring back," said Chantilly coach Phil Cronin. "They have been just wrestling out of their minds." 

Fauquier, which competes in the AA Evergreen District, took second place overall with 253 points.

South County finished with 168 points.