It’s a month and a half into the wrestling team’s season, and the team has not disappointed with its performance. The wrestling team has seen some major victories over good teams this season and has beaten teams this year that they fell to last year.
The Cats started the season by playing Seneca Valley at home on Dec. 6, resulting in a convincing win, 49-27. The Cats then won a tight contest against Magruder (40-39) before crushing Gaithersburg at home (66-12) to round out 2023. So far in January, the Cats have been dealt losses to Quince Orchard (42-33) and Clarksburg (49-30).
“I feel like we have some great leadership in our captains. I feel like we have gotten off to a very good start to the year, with 3-2. I’m pretty confident we’re going to ride this out to a good year and a good season, we’re only getting better,” junior Sam Potter said.
Hagerstown Armed Forces Duals
On Dec. 8, the Cats traveled to North Hagerstown High School to compete in the Armed Forces Duals, playing nine matches in two days. The team ended with a combined tournament record of 7-2, finishing second out of eleven teams. In their first tournament of the season, the Cats seemed like a strong team.
“[The] team did awesome, I’m really glad we were able to come in second place. We didn’t have people to wrestle for three out of the four weight classes, which added to some of our losses. But I think in the future when we have those weight classes filled out, we’ll do a lot better,” senior Anthony Levri said.
Davison Classic
About a month later, on Jan. 5, the Cats were back at it in their second tournament of the season, this time at the Davison Classic.
As a team, the Cats placed fifth out of 22 teams. Individually, several players had excellent performances and placed well in their respective weight classes, including junior Bahdan Kurepkin who received a first-place finish. Junior Hudson Barrett placed third, junior Sam Potter and senior Sawyer Chism each placed fourth and sophomore Dan Gershon placed fifth.
“As a team we got fifth, so we did very well. It’s a tough competition, tough tournament, but we have a couple of guys who got on the podium, so shout out to them,” Potter said.
The team isn’t only getting good placings at these tournaments. The Cats are leaving a good impression on opposing teams’ coaches, marking Walter Johnson wrestling a contender in the state.
“Just top to bottom we’re beating good teams and beating good teams by a lot of points just by wrestling well,” head coach Brian Frantz said.
The Cats have another tournament on tap, as they look ahead to the Hurricane Duals on Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19-20 at Huntingtown High School.
