Garaway wrestling team wins a Division III sectional title
Garaway’s Braylon Books tore the 138-pound weight class apart in rolling to a sectional title at Sandy Valley. He was one of three Pirates to earn a championship, and a dozen Pirates made it to the district level.
This season began as one of high hopes for the Garaway Pirates wrestling team.
Their showing at the Division III Sandy Valley sectional tournament did nothing to dampen those hopes.
The Pirates rolled to a sectional championship, compiling 237.5 points, more than 100 points higher than runner-up Sandy Valley’s 133 points.
It was an impressive run start to finish for the Pirates, who tallied titles from Braylon Books (138 pounds, 36-5 season record), Mitchell Tetreault (144, 38-6) and Wyatt Gordon (175, 27-14), along with runner-up finishes from Lukas Miller (106, 31-9), Bryce Books (113, 38-5), Colton Domer (157, 34-8) and Matt Frey (165, 29-10).
In addition, several more wrestlers grabbed a spot in the upcoming district tournament. Bryce Johnson (126, 16-19), Mycah Schlabach (132, 19-20), Alex Hamsher (150, 26-21), Cole Westfall (190, 19-10) and Dillon King (215, 7-2) all took home bronzes in third place, meaning a total of 12 Pirates will vie for a trip to the state tournament at districts.
It was an exciting effort from Greg Miller’s crew, but it wasn’t unexpected from a group that had such huge potential and high expectations coming into the season.
“We knew we had a great chance to do some special things,” said head coach Greg Miller, who went on to talk about how this team is one that doesn’t have a superstar or two but relies on a total team effort to succeed.
Miller said he had preached team effort top to bottom over the prior three weeks during a match with Claymont, state duals and the Inter-Valley Conference tournament, but his team didn’t realize its potential.
It did on this weekend.
“We were never able to have everyone wrestle well at the same time in any of those instances, and it hurt us,” Miller said. “I told the guys this weekend that we don’t have to wrestle out of our minds, just wrestle to our ability as a whole and we’ll be fine. The message stayed the same throughout, and I think that with them hearing it for four straights weeks it sunk in.”
Miller also said this team doesn’t have an emotional rah-rah leader. Instead, it relies on good team chemistry and guys who don’t get too high or low but stay in the moment and wrestle smart.
He did point out Hamsher as being the one kid who the other wrestlers seem to rally around because of the effort.
“Whether he is winning matches or keeping it close, the team seems to recognize how hard he wrestles and the effort he puts into it,” Miller said. “They see that and appreciate it.”
Braylon Books barely broke a sweat in fashioning a win by fall at 0:32 in his quarterfinal match, posting a tech fall 17-0 victory in the semis, then pinning Alex Ney of Bellaire in the finals in just 34 seconds.
Tetreault was equally impressive, securing a trio of fall victories in times of 0:38, 0:39 and a win over Jaysen Sonson of Sandy Valley by fall at 3:52 in the finals.
After reaching the finals, Gordon churned out a 15-9 victory over Blayne Mounts of River View.
What makes this group exciting is the Pirates boast loads of youth. Garaway returns two 2024 state qualifiers. Sophomores Tetreault and Braylon Books are both coming off state-qualifying performances last season while sophomores Domer and Frey were both district qualifiers last season, and Hamsher and Schlabach are only sophomores.
Johnson and King are juniors while Gordon, Miller, Bryce Books and Westfall are all incoming freshman, making this group of accomplished wrestlers mighty enticing for the next several seasons.
“I’ve been waiting for this crew to get to high school because they experienced real success coming up through the program, and it’s a matter of keeping talent around the younger guys,” Miller said. “The one thing we don’t want is for this to be a flash in the pan. We want to build momentum around this team success and convince kids that we are doing something special here and it’s exciting to be part of it.”
Last season the Pirates placed fourth at districts with not nearly the numbers they will boast this time, and thus, Miller said they have hopes of bettering that finish while moving on as many wrestlers as they can to the state tournament, something he feels confident in as long as they continue to reach their maximum potential.