The wrestling team placed tenth out of 25 teams on Feb. 18 and 19 at the MCPS Championships at Blair. Junior co-captain Elad Covaliu won his weight class, finishing the season with an unbeaten record of 36-0. Covaliu beat his opponent with a score of 6-5, winning the County Championship.
The team also had impressive performances from junior Max McCleskey and sophomore Colin McCoy, who placed fourth and fifth, respectively.
“Going into the county finals I was expecting nothing less than first place,” said Covaliu. “All the hard work I put into this long wrestling season paid off. It felt great to get this win; now I have to do it again at regionals and states.”
Covaliu is not the only one getting pumped for regionals and states; coach Tom Wheeler is also feeling good about the upcoming matches.
“Colin, Max and Elad have exceptional chances to make states and I think we may have a couple of surprises from the lower seeds,” said Wheeler.
WJ also went straight to the Regional Championships at Sherwood on Feb. 25 and 26. Covaliu dominated again, winning 8-6 in overtime against his opponent from Magruder. McCleskey finished fourth, qualifying for states, junior Tim Forline placed fifth and McCoy placed sixth.
“Considering we’re not losing any of our varsity starters and everybody put in their best effort this season, we should have a good next year,” said junior Charlie Bulman.
You can catch the last matches of this wrestling season on March 4 at 3 p.m. andMarch 5 at 8 a.m. at the State Championships at UMCP Cole Field House.
