Freedom and Potomac Falls entered the Potomac District/Conference 14 Wrestling Championships Friday as the two favorites, and the teams did not disappoint their supporters as they battled down to the wire.

In the end, Freedom came out on top by virtue of its four champions to two for Potomac Falls in the inaugural event at Tuscarora High School in Leesburg.

Freedom scored 214.5 points to finish as the team champion. Potomac Falls finished with 191 points as the runner-up and was followed by Broad Run (177), Briar Woods (169), Tuscarora (148) and Stone Bridge (123).

Each of the six schools produced at least one individual champion, and each team had at least six wrestlers advance to next weekends Group 5A North Region Championships at North Stafford as the top four in each weight class moved on.

Seniors Bradley Nelson (160 pounds) and Andy Hinrichs (170) joined junior Wes Reeves (126) and sophomore Garret Moody (145) as Freedoms individual champions. The Eagles saw 11 of their 14 entrants advance to regionals, and head coach Kent Nagy said the team concept is a strong one at Freedom.

Wrestling is an individual sport with team emphasis, Nagy said. We talk about how each kid writes a page in the story of the season. We went through that with them the other day and what their page said, how it collectively worked to the greater story and made the story real smooth.

To win as a team is a big deal for our kids, Nagy added. They train hard together year-round, wrestling together, and thats what makes it so great.

Senior Tad Haugen (182) and junior Garret Griffith (152) brought home the individual titles for Potomac Falls, which also will send 11 wrestlers to regionals.

The boys wrestled hard, Panthers head coach Rob Puterio said. We would have liked to come out with a win tonight, but it is what it is. Weve been struggling all year to catch our fire, catch our groove. Today we were in it and competing for a title, but we fell just a little short.

The two top teams produced two of the best matches of the night.

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Freedom wins Conference 14 wrestling title