VIRGINIA BEACH - St. Johns Country Day School sports got yet another title for the trophy case with a national high school wrestling title from freshman grappler Howard Hill Sunday morning at the National High School Coaches Association (NHSCA) Wrestling National Championship held in Virginia Beach.

Hill, at 152 pounds, who was a third-place finisher at the FHSAA state Class 1A championships just two weeks ago, defeated Luke Drake of Pennsylvania 8-3 for the national title with Hill's persistence on the mat seeming to wear down and demoralize his opponent.

"Even though this was a national championship meet, I put a lot more pressure on myself at the state championships and learned a valuable lesson in my mental preparations for big meets," said Hill, who coached 113-pounder Bryce Fiore to a first-ever state wrestling title for the Spartans a few weeks ago in Kissimmee. "For this meet, I did very little film work on the guys here and watched like two minutes of matches while here. I was programming myself to wrestle the best I could and just have fun doing it."

Also, on the mats in Virginia Beach, Middleburg High wrestling coach Coll Robertson had a handful of his athletes battling for a national title with seniors Sarah Walsh and Porter Loveland both having outstanding weekends. Walsh, at 132, rifled through a gauntlet of matches to a 7-2 overall record with her matches including a second-round loss to Pennsylvania state champion Angelina Spachman in her second match. It was followed by four straight wins by first period pins, and a 17-0 tech fall before losing 3-0 to Massachusetts three-time state champion Adriana DeGroat.

"We love to see the tough competition and, sure, it sucks to lose, but a meet of this caliber gives us more to work on when we get back home."

Loveland, the state runner-up at 190, finished at 2-2 but not without fending off a Virginia state champion and a Maryland state champion. Hill, with dad and coach Hunter Hill, bringing the mustard from St. Johns Country Day School's wrestling infancy program, got through his championship match after falling behind 3-1 in the first period.

"I just thought about my scrambling and knew that I was going to be the best scrambler in the nation today," Hill said. "He got the first move and points on me, but that was all he could do. He tried the same move a few more times, but I had seen it and mentally kept him away from me."

In the final two periods, Drake lost points with stalling points going to Hill in the second and third periods that allowed Hill to build a 3-3, then 5-3 score with Drake unable to crack Hill's relentless attacks. Hill eventually finished the match up 8-3.

For Hunter, watching and coaching his son has become somewhat awkward as he had to throttle back a bit in tough situations to keep the coach hat on and not let the dad hat take over.

"He threw a big cross face, and it was almost like he punched Colt in the mouth," said Hunter, who has orchestrated a state title from Fiore and now his national title with son Howard, nicknamed Colt. "I jumped up like a dad and yelled what the heck, but my other coaches got me back in the chair."

Earlier in his weekend, Hill defeated North Carolina state runner-up Isaac Young, 6-4, in the semifinal to advance to the final. Hill rolled through his bracket with a pin against Ohio, a 9-2 over Pennsylvania, a third period pin over Louisiana, the 6-4 against Utah and the 5-0 in his semifinal against North Carolina.

"When Colt jumped in my arms after the win was when I went back to being dad with tears," Hunter said.

For the Spartans wrestling program, Hunter has quickly put St. Johns on the Florida wrestling mat.

"The last three years has been a quiet build that started in my garage and now has a state and national title," Hunter said. "I think we are the hottest building program in the area."

The arduous four days of wrestling at the NHSCA National event is highlighted by titles and medals to just a handful of Clay County wrestlers including Paul Cobbert, national title 2001; Derek Miller, fifth in 2016 and Steven Joseph, who won a preseason NHCSA title. Such notable names that have competed but not won senior titles include Bolles state champion Chris Bolles (3rd 1991), South Dade state champion Gavin Balmaceda (4th, 2024), Osceola state champion Javier Maldonaldo (7th 2003) and Suwannee state champion Travis Laxton (5th 2010). State champion Kendrick Hodge of Somerset Academy was the most recent national champion with a 160 title in 2024.

For Middleburg, freshman Fallon Dames at 114, had two pins for wins with two losses; one to Jasmine Villegas of Georgia, a senior headed to Brewton Parker Christian University and a state runner-up at Toombs County High.
At 126, junior Nathan Harvey was 2-2 along with 138 sophomore Jonathan Harp. Harvey's sister, Lake Asbury Junior High seventh grader Abigail Harvey finished at 1-2 with a first round BYE along with seventh grader Truman Dames who was 2-2 with a BYE and 12-5 win over Massachusetts.

Bronco sophomore Terry Milam finished 2-2 with wins over Connecticut and New York.