Senior Elliott Mondragon improved to 27-0, pictured here at Georgetown Prep
Despite Mother Natures persistent efforts to keep the Ireton grapplers off the mat, the Cardinals traveled to Bethesda on Friday to take on the Landon Bears, the St. Anselm’s Panthers, and the Washington Post’s tenth-ranked powerhouse Georgetown Prep Hoyas.
The Cards overpowered the Panthers with final team score of 78-6. Against Landon, the Cards once again dominated the Bears taking them down with a final team score of 63-12. The Hoyas from Prep are the third ranked opponent the Cardinals have wrestled this year and they earned that ranking as the Cards fell for only the third time this year with a final score of 52-21.
The Cardinal matmen quickly rebounded on Saturday at Godly Gym against the Bulldogs from Bullis as a said “farewell” to our four seniors. As their tribute our graduating seniors, the Cardinals beat Bullis with a final team score of 42-27. Our last match of the week was against the Crusaders from Bishop Sullivan, who the Ireton Cardinals soundly defeated with a final score of 62-12.
Despite the foul weather, fan turnout for the matches in Bethesda was terrific and fan support for the Cardinal grapplers was rewarded with a first win of the night against a short-handed St. Anselms. Against the Panthers, Ireton won all but one individual match. Four were won by pins from senior Arslan Ryspekov at 119lbs in 1:41, sophomore Tommy Dean at 145lbs in 1:00, junior Andrew Bladen at 171lbs in :48, and junior Andrew Lutterloh at 215 lbs in :19, which was also the fastest pin of the match and Andrew’s fastest career pin. Additional nine wins were by forfeits from Elliot Mondragon, Darcy Gomez, Jeff Severini, Nick Womach, Andrew Baehre, Ricki Baier, Ben Nagao, Tommy Fessahaye, and Jimmy Keegan.
The 63-12 victory against the Landon Bears was achieved with a total of eleven individual wins, six of which were by pin from junior Darcy Gomez in 1:53, senior Arslan Ryspekov in 1:21, Andrew Baehre in a career best :10, junior Gibson Hawk in 4:32, junior Andrew Bladen in 1:22, and junior Andrew Lutterloh in 4:11. Additional wins were achieved by Jeff Severini at 125 lbs with a 7-2 decision, and four wins by forfeit from Elliot Mondragon, Ricki Baier, Michael Rodriguez, and Ben Nagao.
The final match of the evening against the Georgetown Prep Hoyas proved to be the greatest challenge of the week as the Cards fell for the third time this year. In our match against the undefeated and reigning IAC champions, the Cards put up a good battle winning four individual matches, two of which were by pin from senior Elliot Mondragon at 103 lbs in 1:50, and junior Andrew Lutterloh at 215, in :25, which was also the fastest pin of the match. Additional wins were achieved by junior Andrew Bladen at 171 lbs with a 5-2 decision, and junior Ben Nagao at 152 lbs with a win by forfeit.
The Ireton fans were enthusiastically supportive for the “Senior Day” matches at Godley Gym on Saturday, as the team won both ends of the triangular meet as a send off to departing seniors Elliot Mondragon, Arslan Ryspekov, Ricki Baier and James Oliva. In our opening match of the day against the Bullis Bulldogs, the Ireton Cardinals won eight of their individual matches, four of which were by pin from senior Elliot Mondragon at 103 lbs in 1:50, junior Darcy Gomez at 112 lbs in 1:08, sophomore Nick Womach at 130 lbs in 1:10, and junior Andrew Lutterloh in 5:28. Achieving the fastest pin against the Bulldogs was Darcy Gomez, who stuck his opponent in 1:08. Additional wins were achieved by junior Gibson Hawk at 160 lbs with a 12-7 decision, junior Andrew Bladen wrestling up to 189 lbs with a 7-6 decision, and two wins by forfeit from Jeff Severini and Ricki Baier.
The support for the Cardinals was progressively more supportive in the Cardinal’s final match of the week against Bishop Sullivan. Having just beaten Bullis and hoping for some pay back against the Cardinals for our recent victory at the Commonwealth Catholic Classic Tournament, the Crusaders put up a good fight, but ultimately they fell to the hosts with a score of 62-12.
Against the Crusaders, the Cardinals won twelve of our fourteen individual bouts, with pins from senior Elliot Mondragon at 103 lbs in 1:33, senior Arslan Ryspekov at 119 in 1:00, sophomore Jeff Severini at 125 lbs in :36, junior Andrew Bladen at 171 lbs in 1:25, and senior James Oliva at 189 lbs in 5:49. Fastest pin of the match was achieved by Jeff Severini, who pinned his opponent in :36, which is his fastest pin this season, but two seconds slower than his career fastest pin.
While many of the individual bouts kept us at the edge of our seats, none could match the final seconds of senior James Oliva’s match as he came from an 8-3 deficit to pin his Crusader opponent in the final period .
Bishop Ireton will conclude the dual meet portion of the regular season against the Covenant Eagles and John Paul the Great Wolves on Tuesday (February 2, 2011) at the Covenant School (175 Hickory St., Charlottesville, VA 22902) and wrestling is scheduled to begin at 5:00PM. After Tuesday’s matches, the Ireton Wrestlers begin their “post regular season” tournaments.
The first of the postseason tournaments will be the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) Championship Tournament, which will be hosted this year by Our Lady of Good Counsel (17301 Old Vic Blvd, Olney, MD 20832). The WCAC tournament will be held next Saturday, February 5, 2011 and wrestling will begin at about 9:00AM. The WCAC Tournament will be followed by the St. Albans Invitational Tournment on February 11-12, then the Virginia Independent Schools Athletic Association (VISAA) State Wrestling Tournament on February 18-19, 2011. This year the VISAA State Tournament will be held at the VCU Siegal Center in Richmond, VA. The final wrestling event of the season will be the National Prep tournament in Lehigh, PA on February 25-26, 2011.
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