What already had been a standout season leading up to state tournament became much better for Soren Pirhoun when the Marshall Statesmen senior won the 215-pound Class 6 wrestling championship at the Virginia High School League event.
Pirhoun won the title with a 4-0 record, including one pin and three regular decisions. He won 6-3 in the championship match over Harry Maltese of Fairfax High. Pirhoun lost to Maltese earlier in the regular season.
“We expected him to win the state and he stuck with his game plan and wrestled well,” Marshall head coach Daniel Nguyen said.
A year ago, Pirhoun finished third in the state at the heavyweight division. He lost some 35 pounds in time for the start of his senior season so he could compete at the next lowest weight.
Pirhoun did well, finishing this season with a 27-4 record and compiling a 78-17 career mark at Marshall. In addition, he won three region championships for Marshall and a couple of district titles.
“Soren’s four losses this season were against very good competition,” Nguyen said.
Pirhoun moved to Northern Virginia with his family from Iran to start his sophomore year at Marshall. The style of high-school wrestling in this country is different from the more freestyle and Greco-Roman approach Pirhoun had previously known. So he was whistled for a number of illegal locking-hands calls during sophomore matches for Marshall as Pirhoun underwent a learning process, which was frustrating at times.
“Soren was willing to learn, and it pretty much took him his sophomore year to learn a new style of wrestling. He didn’t like to lose and he didn’t want to let us down as coaches when he wrestled,” Nguyen said.
Also for Marshall at the state tournament, senior Ben Levy finished his career with a third-place finish at 120.
Levy injured his right knee during his opening match, which he lost, 8-7. He then went 5-0 in consolation matches, with a pin, to finish third, winning 8-2 in his final match.
“His knee was still injured in those other matches, but Ben didn’t want to quit and he pushed through to finish strong and get third,” Nguyen said.
Levy finished the season with a 31-6 record and his four-year wrestling career at Marshall with a 112-14 mark. He wrestled in the state tournament three times.
“He had a great career here,” Nguyen said.
Marshall’s Ethan Lebkisher was fifth in the state at 190.
Marshall placed 10th in the team standings.
Langley High School’s Robert Roncskevitz (39-4) was second in the state at 165. He had a 3-1 record, losing in the championship match 15-7.
Oakton High’s Alek Martinez was fifth at 157 and McLean High’s Jacob Daly was sixth at 126.
For the Yorktown Patriots in the state meet, Cambyses Khani finished fifth at 113 and Washington-Liberty’s Baseale Mulglugeta was sixth at 106.
