McDuffie will miss district tournament

Woodbridge wrestling coach Anthony McDuffie will miss this weekend’s Cardinal District meet after being ejected from a quad meet at Courtland last weekend.

During the Vikings’ match with Brooke Point on Saturday, McDuffie was ejected for arguing with an official. As a result, he’ll miss the next scheduled competition, which, in this case, is the district meet.

In McDuffie’s absence, assistant coach Karl Eberly will assume control of the team. In accordance to VHSL rules, a coach who is ejected from a contest is automatically suspended for the team’s next contest.

After McDuffie was ejected from Saturday’s match, there was apparently a second incident involving some Brooke Point fans, although details concerning what happened were unclear. McDuffie declined comment on both of last weekend’s incidents.

Woodbridge activities director Greg Margheim said the second incident was being investigated. He refused further comment, calling the issue a personnel matter.

“Definitely [he’s suspended for one event], no matter what else happened,” Margheim said.

Brooke Point activities director Chris Courtney declined comment on the situation, and Courtland’s athletics department referred all questions about the incident to officials at Woodbridge.

The Vikings are the favorites to win the Cardinal District tournament, which begins on Saturday at Forest Park.

COMMONWEALTH ANNOUNCES SEEDINGS

Stafford County wrestlers claimed all 14 top seeds for this weekend’s Commonwealth District tournament, to be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Brooke Point.

Not surprisingly, Colonial Forge led all teams by earning 10 of the tournament’s number-one seeds. Among them were Matt Taylor (103), Brandon Lawn (112), Jay Chichester (119), Kyle Graham (125), Bruce Ross (130), Doug Kittell (135), Scott Fisher (145), Dale Pellar (152), Willie Johnson (215) and Chuck Brown (275).

The tournament’s other top seeds include Brooke Point’s Brian Foley (140), Stafford’s Thomas McClelland (160) and Joe O’Sullivan (189) and North Stafford’s Kyle MacLaird (171).

The Cardinal District will release tournament seedings after their seeding meeting on Wednesday night, while the Cedar Run District will hold its seeding meeting on Thursday night. The Bull Run District holds its tournament a week from Saturday at Brentsville.

PREPPING FOR DISTRICTS

For many wrestlers, the preseason became a distant memory long ago. Now, with dual meets wrapped up as well, the focus turns to the postseason and the long road to Chesapeake.

The district tournaments filter the field into regionals, which, for the AAA Northwest Region, will be at Colonial Forge. From there, the field shrinks, but those who are left move onto the state tournament at Oscar Smith High School in Chesapeake.

The stakes, now, are a bit higher, and that means a change in philosophy for some teams.

“I’ve tended to tone things down,” said Hylton coach P.J. Pcsolinski. “The last thing you want is for a kid to get hurt … I’m not nearly as intense. If you’re going live, you feel like a complete idiot if a kid gets hurt the week before districts.”

Brian Hunsicker covers wrestling for the Potomac News & Manassas Journal Messenger. Reach him at (703) 878-8053.