WJ won its match against Richard Montgomery by a score of 67-6 on Dec. 21. Sophomore Colin McCoy pinned his opponent in 1:14 seconds, sophomore Jamie Fitzpatrick prevailed in 1:24 seconds, and junior co captain Elad Covaliu pinned down his opponent in 3:29 seconds.

“Beating a team like RM 67-6, although it seems great, it isn’t such a big accomplishment for us,” said Covaliu. “RM is one of the few teams on our schedule that we know we will beat. So crushing them by that much is simply expected. But when we wrestle those types of teams our focus is not to just beat a bad team but to do everything perfectly and to look good doing it.”

WJ was then defeated by Springbrook on Dec. 23, losing 21-40. Junior Max McCleskey scored a major decision against his opponent with a score of 5-4,Covaliu also had major decision with a score of 5-3, along with junior Will Greenan with a score of 4-2.

“We won 5 of the 6 close matches so I was satisfied,” said coach Tom Wheeler.

The wrestling team then placed fourth out of 10 teams that were entered in the Leopard Invitational at Smithsburg High School on  Dec. 28. Covaliu  took  first place, junior Jimmy Parker and McCoy were both awarded second place, along with juniors Mario Murillo, Charlie Bulman and Grennan picking up third at the invitational. Wheeler was pleased with the results and is excited to continue the season.

“There were some very good teams at the Leopard and we wrestled very well in most weight classes,” said Wheeler.  “This is Elad’s second championship there.”

You can catch WJ’s next wrestling match this Wednesday, Jan. 5 at Gaithersburg.