Bishop Ireton claims 4th in WCAC wrestling championships

Senior Andrew Bladen, above, was one of 4 Cardinals advancing to the finals at the 2012 WCAC wrestling championships Saturday at PVI.

Buoyed by 4 wrestlers in the WCAC championships and two more finishing third, Coach Don Dight’s grapplers earned a 4th place in the 9-team WCAC championships at Paul VI Catholic High School Saturday.

DeMatha won their 27th WCAC/WMAC title regaining the crown from defending champs, Good Counsel who finished second. Host Paul VI earned a third, and the Cardinals edged St Mary’s Ryken for 4th place. Bishop McNamara, Bishop O’Connell, St Johns and Gonzaga rounded out the finishers in the annual event.

“With two exceptions, we wrestled where we were seeded.” commented Dight. “You always want to win the ones you are seeded to win, and then steal a couple where you weren’t expected to win.” That was the case as Gibson Hawk at 150 topped last year’s runner up, St Johns’ Patrick Wynsloff in the semi finals to advance to the title bout. Gibson joined Nick Womack, Andrew Bladen, and Andrew Lutterloh in the evening’s title matches.

Darcy Gomez claimed a third place finish at 113 after falling to the tournament’s most valuable wrestler, champion freshman Jake Vosburgh of St Mary’s Rylen. Likewise, Nick Womack lost to one of the area’s top wrestlers, Bishop McNamara’s Alfred Bannister, the Washington Post’s top ranked 138 pounder. Andrew Lutterloh suffered a similar fate at 220, as the top ranked and undefeated Kyle Snyder of Good Counsel topped the third-ranked Ireton senior for his second WCAC crown. Andrew Bladen was second after losing to DeMatha’s Dylan Devine, while junior Jimmy Keegan was Ireton’s other third place finisher in the 285 lbs weight class.

The Cardinals continue in “tourney mode” for the next two weekends as they travel to St Albans on Feb 10/11 before heading south for the VISAA’s state meet on Feb 17/18. The season will conclude at that point for the team although selected wrestlers may qualify for the National Preps at Lehigh on Feb 24-26 in Pennsylvania.