DC – Washington Catholic Athletic Conference | Archive | December, 2010

VISAA's top-ranked Cards mug following tourney win at St Stephens Dec 30th.

Still exhilarated fromtheir victory at the Bishop Ireton Holiday Classic, the Cardinal grapplers earned their standing as the number-one ranked team in the Virginia Independent School Athletic Association (VISAA) this week by winning the championship at the 34th annual St. Stephens St. Agnes (SSSA) Holiday Classic Tournament on Thursday.

The SSSA Holiday Classic Wrestling Tournament is one of the longest-running wrestling tournaments in the Washington, DC area and this year was attended by ten public/private schools. With a solid 24-point spread between Ireton and second-place Park View High School, Ireton wrestlers once again brought home a 1st place team trophy along with achieving two individual championships, two 2nd place medals, two 3rd place medals, and one 4th place medal. 

Among the individual placeholders were senior Elliot Mondragon and junior Andrew Lutterloh, who both won the championship in their 103lb and 215lb respective weight classes. Bringing home second place medals were sophomore Nick Womach at 130lbs and senior Ricky Baier at 140lbs.  Sophomore Andrew Baehre and Junior Gibson Hawk each won 3rd place in their 135lb and 160lb weight classes and Junior Darcy Gomez won fourth place at 112lbs. The fastest pin of the day was achieved by senior Ricky Baier against his John Paul the Great opponent, who he pinned in 1:23.
The championship title was expecially gratifying after being recognized last week on the Virginia Wrestling website as the #1 ranked wrestling team among private schools (see:
http://www.virginiawrestling.com/forums/topic.php?id=846). 

Bishop Ireton returns to action against St. Johns and St. Marys Ryken next Wednesday, January 5 at St. Johns College High School (2607 Military Rd, Washington, DC 20015), match begins at 4pm.

 
Later next week, on Saturday (January 8, 2011), the Cards will travel to Fork Union Military Academy (4744 James Madison Hwy, Fork Union, VA 23055), where they will compete against the FUMA Blue Devils and the Collegiate Cougars.  Wrestling begins at 2:00pm.

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Sarah Rupp(l), Olivia Babiec (c), and Liz Collins (r) sign their college letters of intent as principal Tim Hamer looks on.

Principal Tim Hamer joined three Cardinal athletes who signed national letters of intent to attend college to play division I athletics.  Seniors Liz Collins, Sarah Rupp, and Olivia Babiec all inked letters on Wednesday, December 15th at Bishop Ireton.

Collins, daughter of Mr & Mrs John Collins of Alexandria is headed to William & Mary to swim for the Tribe.   She swims for Coach John Gullickson on the Ireton team, but  Liz also swims for Coach Evan Stiles on the Arlington Aquatic Swim Club.  Liz was a Virginia State Independent School Champion in the 100 Breaststroke last year, National Catholics finalist, Metros finalist and received All AmericancConsideration accolades along with her Medley Relay teammates.  Liz is also a team record holder, scholar athlete, member of National Honor Society and a volunteer with Fairfax County Adapted Aquatics.

Sarah Rupp is a returning first team, all-WCAC performer for Bishop Ireton’s girls’ lacrosse team and a three-year varsity letter winner.  She plays for the extremely competitive Capital Blue lacrosse club team, Ireton’s leader in ground balls last season, and will head to the University of California, Davis, in the fall of 2011. Rupp is a member of the National Honor Society and active with Haitian relief progams at the School.  She is the daughter of Mr & Mrs Steve Rupp of Alexandria.

Olivia Babiec is the second from her family to head to collegiate rowing. Her brother, Thaddeus, rows for the Terriers of Boston University as a freshman this year. Olivia, a star on the girls’ national qualifying team, led Ireton to its highest place ever, third place, at the historic Stotsbury Cup regatta last springwill be going to Drexel University in Philadelphia, where she will row for the Dragons.  Like her classmates, she is an active member of the National Honor Society.   Olivia is the daughter of Dr & Mrs Dan Babiec.

“We are extremely proud of all three girls.  They are not only elite athletes, but they are also exceptional in the classroom, and leaders in our school community.” said Cardinal athletic director, Bill Simmons.  “These universities are getting student/athletes that will excel in athletics, but also as students.  They  are just great ambassadors of our school and I am sure they will be the same in college.”

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WUSA, Channel 9’s Brett Haber presented Bishop Ireton junior Matt Krause and two other high school sports correspondents with awards and scholarships for their work in the station’s inaugural Campus Correspondent program with HighSchoolSports. com Monday at headquarters of the CBS affiliate in Washington. 

In addition to the silver trophy presentation, a scholarship worth $3,000 was presented to the Alexandria native, son of Mr. & Mrs. Lincoln Krause.   Also recognized was Mitchell Brown of Stonewall Jackson High School and overall winner Annabel Russell of Westlake High School.  Krause had the program’s video clip of the year, noted Haber, who played Krause’s video of  the Bullis 60-yard touchdown run that was nullified by a whistle when the Bulldogs executed such a great fake that not only did the Cardinals bite on it, but also the officials who blew the play dead while the quarterback was streaking untouched down the sideline.  The sports anchor commented the video was  elevated to the news desk from sports at their station and soon became a national YouTube hit.

Tammy Dorge, spokesperson for the DarCars, who with Toyota, sponsored this year’s campus correspondent program presented each winner with a pen, to “write down” their thoughts, their dreams, their goals.  Haber, in his remarks to the students, encouraged them to pursue their passion in journalism and, borrowing from Ms Dorge’s theme, advised them at that using their new pens to “write a note to potential employers, interviewers, or people you meet, because that note makes a powerful impression that can separate you from others with just those few moments of your time.”

WUSA’s campus correspondence program attracted more than 50 reporters in its first year and its success surprised even the most ambitious supporters of the initiative at WUSA. “We recorded more than 200,000 hits a month on our HighSchoolSports.com website and our “game of the week” polls attracts more 20,000 votes some weeks according to Haber.

Accompanying Krause and his mother was Bishop Ireton principal, Tim Hamer, AD Bill Simmons, varsity cheerleaders Whitney Cook, Lizzy Spooner, and Margaret Gray, as well as the Cardinal mascot, MJ Foster.

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Junior Tommy Fessahaye, wrestling up a weight class at 215, battled for three periods against a bigger foe, but wrestled smart and exploited opportunities when presented to win a key match that sent the Cardinals to their first win in years over the Panthers.  Leading 3-0 as the period wore down,  the game two-year veteran used a half nelson to turn the weary Panther to his back, his first varsity pin as a Cardinal. Six of Ireton’s 9 match wins were  by fall, including  senior Elliot Mondragon at 112lbs, sophomore Nick Womach at 130lbs, sophomore Ben Nagao at 152lbs, Gibson Hawk at 160,  junior Tommy Fessahaye at 215lbs, and junior Andrew Lutterloh at heavy weight. 

In the second match of the evening against Bishop O’Connell, the Cardinals improved their performance by lancing the Knights with a score of 52-19. Against O’Connell, nine of our wrestlers delivered wins for Ireton and six of our wins were by pin. Those delivering pins were senior Elliot Mondragon at 103lbs, sophomore Nick Womach at 130lbs, sophomore Cory Phillips at 135lbs, junior Mike Rodriguez at 145lbs, sophomore Ben Nagao at 160lbs, and junior Andrew Lutterloh at heavy weight. Fastest pin of the match goes to junior Andrew Lutterloh, who pinned his opponent in :20 seconds.

A highlight of the O’Connell dual was the  dramatic come-from-behind pin by sophomore Nick Womack . Trailing by 7-1 in the third period, Womack caught his opponent in a “bannana split” where the opponent’s legs are stretched tight apart.  Womach got the hold “in deep” and rolled his opponent quickly to his back for the fall.

Cardinals return to dual meet action when they travel to Hyattsville to tangle with the Stags of DeMatha on Tuesday.

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On Friday and Saturday  Cardinal grapplers participated in the Northern Virginia (NOVA) Regional Classic Wrestling Tournament at Fairfax High School. With over 30 schools, public and private,  from throughout Northern Virginia participating, it was an arduous but exciting two days for the Ireton wrestlers.

 The 9th place finish made the Cardinals  the highest placed private school in the tournament and topped some of the areas biggest public schools, such as Oakton, Madison, Fairfax.   Despite not having wrestlers in four weight groups (119, 145, 152, and 285 pounds),Ireton wrestlers improved upon their performance by returning ten places higher than last year to finish in the top ten and by bringing home three medals, one of which was for a tournament champion.

Senior Elliot Mondragon’s 2010 championship at the 103 pound weight class was the Cardinals’ first NOVA champion since Brendan Pauls, Ireton’s all time leader in match victories, won in 2002.  Also placing in this year’s NOVA Tournament was senior Ricky Baier, who placed for the first time in this tournament at fourth place, junior Andrew Lutterloh, who improved upon his sixth place from last year, by placing third in his 215lb weight class.

“We had a great weekend of wrestling.  We started shorthanded but the boys wrestled well, I am so proud of them. And, of course, thrilled for Elliot to win a championship. He is a hard worker and very deserving of  a championship.” commented Bishop Ireton head coach, Don Dight.

After a Tuesday dual with DeMatha, the Cardinals return home for the annual Ireton Invitational Wrestling tournament in Godley Gym on Saturday. Preliminary rounds begin at 9am.  This year’s lineup includes St Stephens, John Paul the Great, DeMatha, JEB Stuart, among the nine team field. 

Ireton battles the best public and private schools in the Northern Region wrestling tournament in Fairfax Dec 11,12

 Admission is $5 at the door, no advance ticket sales are anticipated.

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