On a day that will go down in MCPS history for the first ever all-girls dual meet, the boys’ varsity wrestling team rallied from behind to take down Quince Orchard. The match didn’t start off the way the Wildcats hoped, but they fought back to tie it up and ended up winning on the sixth tiebreaker.

“This win was extremely important, as it proved to us that we were still a competitive team that could put up wins. Recent losses made us realize we weren’t living up to expectations, and that we needed to work harder. The win against QO felt like our hard work finally paid off,” senior Sang-woo Hwang said.

Entering the match WJ had been in a little bit of a slump, losing their last two dual meets by a combined 134-28 against Clarksburg and Blair. The match began in a back-and-forth fashion, with both teams trading leads early on. After the first eight weight classes had wrapped up, the Wildcats had pulled away to a 27-18 lead. The QO Cougars, however, responded in a big way, winning the next four weight classes and taking a 12 point lead.

Heading into the last two weight classes, the Wildcats were down 39-27. Although, the team railed back,winning them both after pinning the opposition to the mat. This tied the match up at 39-39. The refs then met together alongside the coaches to go through the tiebreakers. It wasn’t until the sixth tiebreaker that a winner could be determined. The Wildcats were victorious! The tiebreaker went the Wildcats way because WJ didn’t forfeit any weight classes throughout the match while the Cougars had to forfeit two classes.

“When we caught up towards the end, the team realized we ended up tying with QO. Seeing the coaches approach the refs to go through the rule book got us nervous because we had no idea what was going to happen next,” senior Alex Alfelor said.

Despite the victory, the Wildcats still feel there is work to be done in order to get ready for their next match.

“The team is preparing by getting rid of our weaknesses. Our team has a variety of good strengths, but our weaknesses keep getting taken advantage of in a match. If we work hard enough to accomplish this, winning over RM will be a lot easier,“ senior Grady Hutton said.

Once each individual wrestler improves, the team feels that they can go toe-to-toe with every team they face off against.

“Many of us still have bad habits to break, and are putting in the work to become the best wrestlers we can be. Once we break these bad habits, we know we can beat not only RM, but any school in the county,” Hwang said.

Despite the season coming to a close, the Wildcats are still going to treat every remaining match the same way.

“We approach every match with hard work in the wrestling room, emphasizing intensity and enthusiasm,” sophomore Sam Potter said.

The team’s next match is today at Richard Montgomery as they hope to continue to ride the momentum from their recent victory.

“I believe the team will be ready after a win over QO but that doesn’t mean the job is done yet so we’re going to continue to work hard and get a winning streak going,” Alfelor said.