Cox captures Class 5 wrestling championship to become Beach’s first state winner since 2010

Seth Pringle leaps into the arms of Cox coach Dalton Head on Saturday after Pringle’s Class 5 state championship win in sudden victory at 106 pounds at Virginia Beach Sports Center. BILLY SCHUERMAN/STAFF

UPDATED: February 18, 2024 at 2:49 p.m.

Thanks to three individual champions and plenty more contributors, the Cox Falcons earned the first state team wrestling title by any Beach District school since 2010 Saturday at Virginia Beach Sports Center.

The Falcons won the Class 5 crown with 171 points, while Independence, from Northern Virginia, was the runner-up with 142.

Great Bridge, which defeated Cox in a dual meet but finished second to the Falcons in the Region A tourney, was third with 128 points. The Wildcats had hoped to follow their Class 4 domination of the recent past after moving up to the VHSL’s next-highest school-population grouping, but it didn’t happen.

About half of the state’s Class 5 schools are from Hampton Roads, which produced 12 of Saturday’s 14 Class 5 champions. A trio of teams earned three golds apiece — Cox (Seth Pringle at 106 pounds, Caleb Rafal at 126 and Rudy Wagner at 190), Great Bridge (Myrin Nixon at 138, Beau Lewis at 144 and Caleb Neal at 157) and fifth-place First Colonial (Thomas Stofka at 150, Leonard Ashley at 165 and Schey Huff at 215).

Great Bridge's Myrin Nixon pins First Colonial's Owen Cherry in the 138 pound VHSL Class 5 State Championship at the Virginia Beach Sports Center on Saturday, Feb. 17, 2024, in Virginia Beach, Va. (Mike Caudill for The Virginian-Pilot) — Great Bridge’s Myrin Nixon pins First Colonial’s Owen Cherry for the state Class 5 championship at 138 pounds on Saturday at Virginia Beach Sports Center. (Mike Caudill for The Virginian-Pilot)

Also earning first place in their 16-competitor brackets were Tallwood’s Josiah Irizarry (113), Kellam’s Brodie Altman (132) and Deep Creek’s Samuel Diggs (175). Diggs became the Hornets’ first wrestling state champion since 1992.

Deep Creek Samuel Diggs is hoisted by Deep Creek head coach Travis Ferguson after diggs pinned his opponent in the final seconds for a come-from-behind victory in the class 6 weight class 175 state championship. Athletes competed in the VHSL Wrestling State Championships for classes 4, 5, and 6, at the Virginia Beach Sports Center in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on Feb 17, 2024. (Billy Schuerman / The Virginian-Pilot)

Cox coach Dalton Head said before the tournament that depth could pave his team’s path to first place, and he was prescient.

A big difference in the team race was Cox’s array of non-champion place-winners: Karl Ludwig (second at 144), Spencer Keyes (third at 120), Ethan Merullo (third at 175) and Graydon Howard (fourth at 285). That meant the Falcons finished in the top six at seven of the 14 weights.

Great Bridge’s top finishers beyond coach Steve Martin’s trifecta of champions were third-place Xavier Kovacs at 106 and fifth-place Thomas Egley at 113.

Pringle edged Granby’s Keith Fernandez 3-1 in a sudden-victory final. Joining Fernandez and Ludwig as runners-up from the area were Deep Creek’s Amir Wray-Hill (120), Ocean Lakes’ Bryan Turnage (132), Jaden Campos (157) and Logan Chambers (165), First Colonial’s Owen Cherry (138), Nansemond River’s Camden Bauswell (190) and Warwick’s Christian Corbin (285).