Three-count: Wrestling captures another WCAC title

St. John’s wrestling team completed another great season en route to their third straight WCAC title. The team is currently ranked sixth in the DC area by The Washington Post.

After consecutively winning the WCAC championships for two years, the team said they felt confident heading into Sunday’s WCAC championship.

Senior captain Aidan Rocha ’19 said, “The team had been working hard every day and to prepare to to face their hardest competitor, St. Mary’s Ryken.”

The Cadets repeated their earlier success against Ryken and the rest of the WCAC field with six wrestlers winning their weight class:

Tadhg Martinez ‘21 – 106 weight class champ

Luke Kowalski ‘20 – 113 weight class champ

T.J. Stewart – 160 weight class champ

Seamus Selmi  – 170 weight class champ

Jake Sita ‘20 – 182 weight class champ

Mikey Keen ‘21 – 285 weight class champ

Selmi said that the biggest part of the win is that the team was full and all 14 guys won matches and scored points for our team.

Coach Watkins echoed Selmi’s thoughts. “What’s great about this WCAC championship is that we scored points at all 14 of the weight classes, something we had yet to do at a WCAC tournament,” said Head Coach Cam Watkins. “We adjusted our line-up slightly to benefit the team. The adjustment was to our three upper weights, Douglas Rodriguez ’20, Travis Scala ’20 and Mikey Keen ’21, and all three were ready to do what was best for the team,” Watkins said.

Seniors Tim Costello and Aidan Rocha also finished second in their weight class for the Cadets.

The team battled numerous injuries this season, but Timothy Costello said finally having a full team at WCACs motivated us even more.

The wrestling team had not won a championship since the 1970s, but since Coach Watkins took over, the team has been unstoppable. According to Costello, “Coach Watkins came in 2017 with a great attitude and a great coaching style that has led us to now three championships.”