1962 Northern Virginia Tournament aka Regions

Here’s a look back at the 1962 Northern Virginia tournament and it looks like it was a real barn-burner!

This was the 2nd ever “regional” tournament that qualified wrestlers to the state tournament.  The Arlington schools were the dominant teams in the area – Wakefield, Washington-Lee, and Yorktown, but going into this meet upstart Annandale was thought to have a chance to take the crown.  In all, there were 13 teams represented.

The championship came down to the last two weight classes of the tournament, 175lbs and HWT.  Wakefield had the lead and two W-L wrestlers would both have to pin to capture the team title.

As the article below states, in the short history of the tournament, there had never been even one pin in a championship bout.

Jim Spicer was up first in a head to head matchup against defending champion Tom Lamone of Wakefield.  An upset pin in the 2nd period, put the team race in a tie, going into the final match.

W-L’s defending champion Brian O’Donnell faced Tony Bennett (3rd in the state) of James Madison and pinned him in the second period to give W-L the go-ahead point to win the team title.

There are many other great and familiar names that were part of this event.  Vic Blue, the legendary Wakefield coach and Sherman Vandevender, Sr. the WL coach, among many others.

Coach Vandevender is part of the Granby dynasty and was a 3x state champ in 52, 53 and 54.  He’s also the father of some Robinson standouts in the early 80s including state placer, Sherman Jr. and state champ, Greg Vandevender.

One of the coach’s wrestlers, Larry Grove, produced another two generations of wrestlers at Yorktown.

Paul Wellstone went on to be a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, and the list goes on.

From father to son and generation to generation, wrestling makes champions in life.  Let’s keep it going.

Thank you Dick Rickbeil (McLean’s 1st state champ) for the article from the Northern Virginia Sun.

1962 Northern Virginia Tournament Results

Year	Weight	Region	State	First Name	Last Name	School
1962	95	1st	4th	Dick	Bowen	J.E.B. Stuart
1962	95	2nd		Bill	Compton	McLean
1962	95	3rd		Bob	Hetzer	Washington-Lee
1962	95	4th		Frank	Wasuta	Mount Vernon
1962	103	1st	3rd	Paul	Wellstone	Yorktown
1962	103	2nd		Mark	Mugaas	Annandale
1962	103	3rd	4th	Neil	Fink	Wakefield
1962	103	4th		John	Shreves	Fairfax
1962	112	1st	2nd	Dicky	Rickbeil	McLean
1962	112	2nd	3rd	Jeff	Lipsey	Washington-Lee
1962	112	3rd		Donald	Smith	Annandale
1962	112	4th		Bill	Sunda	Yorktown
1962	120	1st	1st	John	Soukey	Mount Vernon
1962	120	2nd		Clayton	Takagi	Wakefield
1962	120	3rd		Don	Ruths	Annandale
1962	120	4th			Jage	Groveton
1962	127	1st		Jerry	Callahan	Falls Church
1962	127	2nd		Toshihiko	Nobe	R.E. Lee – Spr
1962	127	3rd	4th	Dan	Price	Annandale
1962	127	4th		John	Eisenhart	Washington-Lee
1962	133	1st		Gary	Misenheimer	Groveton
1962	133	2nd		Bruce	Blatz	Falls Church
1962	133	3rd		Bud	Reynolds	Yorktown
1962	133	4th	3rd	Tom	Lamanna	Washington-Lee
1962	138	1st		Neil	Smith	Yorktown
1962	138	2nd		Tom	Swan	Annandale
1962	138	3rd		Keith	Douglass	Wakefield
1962	138	4th		Larry	Grove	Washington-Lee
1962	145	1st	1st	Vahan	Khoyan	Washington-Lee
1962	145	2nd	4th	Michael	McKelvie	Mount Vernon
1962	145	3rd		Ron	Eld	J.E.B. Stuart
1962	145	4th		Karl	Veit	Wakefield
1962	154	1st	1st	Jim	Jenkins	Mount Vernon
1962	154	2nd		Robert	Jacobs	Groveton
1962	154	3rd	2nd	Mike	Chapman	Wakefield
1962	154	4th		Jerry	Mullins	Annandale
1962	165	1st	1st	Bill	Darnall	Wakefield
1962	165	2nd		Ronnie	Coburn	Yorktown
1962	165	3rd	2nd	Dan	Jones	Annandale
1962	165	4th		Ron	Tankersley	Fairfax
1962	175	1st	1st	Jim	Spicer	Washington-Lee
1962	175	2nd		Tom	Lamone	Wakefield
1962	175	3rd	2nd	Bob	White	Fairfax
1962	175	4th		Francis	Oxley	J.E.B. Stuart
1962	HWT	1st		Brian	O’Donnell	Washington-Lee
1962	HWT	2nd	3rd	Tony	Bennett	James Madison
1962	HWT	3rd		Steve	Sears	Annandale
1962	HWT	4th		Ned	Garber	Wakefield

Team Placement

Region	School	Points	Coach
1st	Washington-Lee	79	Sherman Vandevender
2nd	Wakefield	78	Vic Blue
3rd	Annandale	67
4th	Yorktown	57	Chuck Harris
5th	Mount Vernon	51
6th	Falls Church	34	Charles Sherwood
7th	Groveton	30
8th	McLean	27
9th	Fairfax	22
10th	J.E.B. Stuart	21
11th	James Madison	17
12th	R.E. Lee – Spr	9
13th	Osbourn	5

If you have updates or history on any of these wrestlers or coaches, please add it in the comments section.  I’m particularly looking for the first name of Jage from Groveton High School.