WJ wrestling lost to Quince Orchard bya score of 31-36 on Jan. 12. Junior Mario Murillo beat his opponent with a score of 4-3, sophomore Innocent Okocha won a major decision against his opponent  11-2 and junior Elad Covaliu pinned his opponent in only 45 seconds.

“Our match against Quince Orchard was close. We should have won, but didn’t,” said senior Sharon Park.  “I felt like I could have done better in my match, but what’s done is done.  It was disappointing I think for everyone because we’ve gone against harder teams and have come out strong. Even though the score didn’t come out as what we expected, I was really proud of our team as well as our coaches.”

In a three-school match on Jan. 16, WJ beat rival Churchill winning 37-26. Junior Max McCleskey pinned down his opponent in one minute and seven seconds, sophomore Colin McCoy prevailed  with a time of one minute and 16 seconds, along with  junior Charlie Bulman who won in only 56 seconds.

“[Our win against Churchill was the] biggest comeback since I’ve been coaching at WJ,” said Wheeler. “The lightweights saved 11 points by fighting pins so the upper weights had room for a comeback.”

The Wildcats then lost their second match of the day against Wootton, 51-27. McCleskey won a major decision with a score of 6-2, junior Tim Forline pinned his opponent in three minutes and ten seconds and  junior Will Greenan prevailed with a time of three minutes and 49 seconds. Although they put in their best effort, some teammates were not pleased with the outcome of the match.

“Wootton was a little disappointing. A couple guys, me included, didn’t perform adequately,” said junior Jimmy Parker. “Wootton is [the] powerhouse this year but we didn’t need to lose that badly.”

You can catch WJ’s next wrestling match against Seneca Valley and Rockville at WJ on Jan. 25.