St. Mary’s Wrestling Club

 

                                “Building the Foundation”

 

Frederick, Icaza and Elliman Participate at the Super32

We packed the car up for Greensboro, NC Friday for the Super32 Wrestling Tournament on Saturday.  This is by far the toughest tournament I have ever been to or read about.  I can’t even begin to describe the level of competition that was in attendance.  The brackets had over a 100 kids in most of them.  Out of the 100+ kids in the brackets, each had at least dozen State Champions and another 30 or so state placers.  There were Freestyle, Greco –Roman and Folkstyle National Champions scattered throughout the building and a handful in each bracket.  This is one of those things that you just get better as a wrestler and coach for just being at.  It was amazing to watch and be a part of.

This was the first season that featured a Middle School division and the best turned out for it.  Christian Icaza was granted a waiver by the tournament committee in order to participate in the division.  For those that don’t know, Christian is in 4th grade and is only 9 years old.  He didn’t disappoint either.  Chritian went 5-2 on the day and finished in 7th place, losing close matches to the 3rd and 4th place finishers.  What an amazing display!

BJ had a solid outing finishing even on the day at 2-2.  He started the day off well picking up a first period fall, before losing to Ben Dorsay from Virginia, who went on to finished 3rd (had some referee trouble in the semis or would have won it).  BJ’s first wrestle back saw him pick up another pin.  His last match saw him go down a quick 5, and with only 1 minute periods, that’s a lot of points to come back from against a quality opponent.

 

Those of you who have been around for awhile may remember Adam Elliman from his time with us.  For those that don’t know he moved to North Carolina a little over two year ago.  Adam went 2-2 and wrestled hard.   Good luck this year Adam!  Cary is lucky to have you.

 

The kids definitely will remember this one for a long time.  When you compete against the best, you learn a lot about what it takes to reach that level.  I am fairly confident that the four that went down will be better wrestlers and leaders in the room this season because of their experience this past weekend.  I encourage everyone that wants to reach that high level in the sport to hit up the open tournament scene and prepare themselves for a few of these big events.