So far this season, WJ wrestling is off to a stellar start. The team won their match against Wheaton by a score of 82-0. Each individual wrestler put in a solid effort, even with Wheaton forfeiting a few match-ups.
Junior Jimmy Parker pinned opponent Jamal Hinds in just 22 seconds, co captain junior Elad Covaliu brought down Ahmed Rawi in three minutes and 16 seconds, and junior Will Greenan, scored a major decision against Eyslater Mendez by a score of 9-1.
Even with these wins, coach Tom Wheeler still saw room for improvement.
“We dominated a weaker team,” he said. “Some of our matches were sloppy despite victories, so we will work to clean up the mistakes and improve for Saturday.”
As new members join the team, their experiences may be somewhat nerve wracking but they may also be very rewarding.
“Since it was my first match I was really nervous,” said sophomore Innocent Okocha.”[But] winning our first match and me personally getting my hand raised for the first time felt pretty good. I don’t think I’m ever going to forget that feeling.”
The team followed up their first win by winning their match against Kennedy by a score of 73-3. Despite their wins, the Cats acknowledge the fact that they need to work hard to beat other teams.
“Everyone did pretty well against Kennedy, but in order to beat teams like Magruder or Rockville we all need to step it up a notch,” said sophomore Tommy Branthover.
