Warriors’ Stutzman is Stanford-bound

The Stutzman family may rack up a lot of frequent flyer miles over the next few years — but Stanford is, clearly, well worth the trouble.

“[The distance is] probably the only downside with Stanford,” said Western Albemarle runner Tyler Stutzman. “But I got over that when I visited.”

Stutzman will head to Palo Alto, Calif. next fall to race for the Cardinals, whose cross country team is now coached by former Virginia coach Jason Dunn. Stutzman joins a team that finished third in the nation at the NCAA Championships and is back on the rise in an ultra-competitive Pac-10.

Plus, his parents get a ready-made place to visit when the weather turns cold in Virginia.

“It’s a great academic institution and that was our first concern,” said Stutzman’s father, Martin. “It’s, obviously, a great opportunity for him both academically and in track and field. And it’s a great place to vacation.”

Stutzman finished fourth recently in the mile at the Millrose Games, one of the nation’s most prestigious indoor meets held at Madison Square Garden in New York. He was a big part of the Warriors’ Group AA outdoor track title last spring, and was an All-Central Virginia pick in cross country this year.

Now he’ll try and take things to the next level at Stanford under Dunn, who Stutzman knew when he was living in Charlottesville.

“Having that connection was definitely a bonus,” Stutzman said. “Not just Jason, but his assistant [David Vidal], too, is cool and a younger guy.”

Madison wrestling comes in 2nd in Bull Run

It’s Region B tournament time for Madison County’s wrestling team.

Madison finished second at the Bull Run tournament last week, which is strong enough to keep moving forward, and they weren’t far off from a championship. Strasburg pulled out the Bull Run title by half a point.

The effort, and the Mountaineers’ strong season, was good enough to earn coach Mike Sacra Bull Run coach of year honors.

Brandon Utz (215 pounds), Tyler Atwell (140) and Jarrett Brumett (140) all took home district titles in their weight classes while Anthony Jewett, Andrew Riner, Baxter Helmick and Bobby Basta dropped their finals to finish as runners-up.

Covenant’s Bunce wins VIC championship

Covenant senior Brandon Bunce was one of four Eagles wrestlers to finish in the top three at the VIC championships on Saturday.

Bunce defeated Liberty Christian’s Bobby Leffew 9-8 in the 135-pound final to avenge two regular-season losses and end the LCA star’s 38-match winning streak. Covenant junior Adam Villio reached the final at 171 before being pinned by Win Higginbotham of Virginia Episcopal.

Covenant also scored a pair of third-place finishers in senior Kyle Hooper at 119 and junior Carter Ellis at 152. Harper notched the 100th win of his career in a 7-2 victory over Joel Hepting of Hargrave Military Academy.

A closer look at the JD swim championships

Western Albemarle certainly stole the show at the Jefferson District, and while Jim Shelley led the way, the Warriors couldn’t have asked for a more balanced performance from the rest of their swimmers. Josh Dugan won in the 200-meter free style and placed second behind Shelley in the 100 butterfly.

“The top finishes give you points, but you need the people coming in second and third,” Shelley said. “You can’t just have number ones. You have to have people finishing two, three and four.”

Perhaps no race summarized the Warriors day in the pool better than the 200 individual medley. Buie Fox and Shiamo Wang were just a few seconds off of Shelley in the event, giving the Warriors a 1-2-3 finish.

The Western girls also showed their depth on Saturday. In the individual races the Warriors tallied up six first and second place finishes in addition to winning the both the 200 and 400 freestyle relays. Natalie Cronk won a pair of gold medals in the 100 breast and backstroke, while Emma McKinley won the 200 and 400 free.  The other top finishers were Seana Acker, who won the 200 IM, and Katherine Nicholson, who won the 100 free.

Daniel Foky is headed to the Region II championship after edging Fluvanna’s Austin Dorsey in the 50 free. The Charlottesville swimmer also won the 100 free, beating Western’s Giles Henry by just over two seconds. And while his times in both events are already a good bit ahead of the competition, Foky is fine-tuning some details in the pool.

“I’m working on my technique,” Foky said. “...The margin of error is so small. Sometimes it’s whose fingernails are longer.”

The Flucos may have a budding star among their ranks in Dorsey. The 14-year-old freshman showed he could swim with the best in both long and short distance races. Dorsey finished in second behind Foky in the 50 free, and was the runner up Orange County’s Nick Montes de Oca in the 400 free. As one of the youngest competitors in the pool, Dorsey was pleased to be swimming with some of Central Virginia’s best.

“I swim with Nick during the winter, so I know how he swims,” Dorsey said. “He’s one of those people I look up to as a long distance swimmer. It was a nice experience to race against him. He’s faster than me so I was really happy to just drop some time and get second, because I knew I wasn’t going to get first.”