Herndon HS Students Take Fifth Place At Wrestling Tournament

From Herndon High School: Senior Cole Cooksey and freshmen K.T. Elston both took fifth place last Saturday to lead the Herndon wrestling team to a 17 th -place finish at the Ray Oliver Wrestling Tournament at the McDonogh School.

Cooksey was 4-2 overall and capped an impressive run through the consolation bracket after losing in the quarter-finals. He had several tight matches, including a 2-1 triple overtime victory over Dematha’s Melvin Yates, followed with another close 3-2 decision over the Gilman School’s Nirakar Pandey. Cooksey met Georgetown Prep’s Thomas Gates in the consolation semi-finals, and dropped a hard fought 10-4 decision which moved him down to the 5 th place match. In his final match, an escape point proved to be the difference as he edged Hayfield’s Matthew Liechty 1-0 to secure 5 th place. Cookseysecured the escape point in the second period and was able to ride out his opponent for the entire third period.

Elston won his fifth-place match by a 10-7 decision over McDonogh’s Isaiah Kessler. He went 2-2 overall, and had an impressive 7-4 win over the #1 seed from Dematha, Drew Robertson, in the quarter-finals. Elston was trailing 4-2 with around 30 seconds left in the third period. After a flurry of action, Elston was able to score a two-point takedown and lock up a cradle to score three back points to pull off the win.

The Hornets resume action on Dec. 10 at the Titan Invitational at Cosby High School. The Cavalier Classic at Woodson (Dec. 17), and the Battle at the Bridge at Woodbridge (Dec. 27-28) conclude competition for the calendar year.

They begin Conference 5 action against Robinson and Oakton on Jan. 11 in a Beauty and the Beast gymnastics-wrestling event at Robinson.

Image Courtesy Of Herndon High School