2007-2008 Varsity Wrestling Schedule

Head Coach: Chris Breslin, cbreslin@heights.edu 301-365-4300

Record: Individual Achievements

Last Updated: 2-7-2008

• 10/29 - 6:30 pm
  Tryouts begin in gym - Home
  
• 11/16 - 4:30 pm
  @ Georgetown Day - Away
  

   Heights loses in a close hard  fought battle.

• 11/27 - 4:30 pm
  @ St Anselms - Away
  

   We lost, 45 to 33.  
      The "good news"  is that we gave away 30 points because we forfeited five matches:  we had no wrestlers for the 102, 112,130,145 and 171 weight classes.
        Of the nine matches we did wrestle, we won six.  Freimuth(119), Gerohristodoulos(135),Melendez(189), Herman(215) and Mehan(285) all won by pin.  Roe(140) won by a 3 to 2 decision that was a real nailbiter.
        Nelson(freshman at 125) lost his first-ever match by pin.  Blewett(152) lost his hard fought match by a decision--9-4.  Max Breslin lost his match by a pin.
         All in all, our guys did great.  They were aggressive and displayed good sportsmanship.  It was a good start to our season, despite the score. 

   

• 12/01 - 7:00 am
  @ St James Tmt - Away
  

    We placed 7th of 9 teams on Saturday.  Zack Blewett and Joe Mehan placed 3rd in their weight classes.  Max Breslin and Peter Freimuth each placed 4th in theirs, but no prize to take home. 

   

• 12/14 - 4:30 pm
  @ Edmund Burke - Away
  
• 12/22 - 7:00 am
  @ Sidwell Tmt - Away
  
• 01/04 - 4:30 pm
  @ Potomac - Away
  
• 01/11 - 3:30 pm
  @ MSD in Tri-meet with St Pauls--Lost - Away
  

  Heights vs. Saint Paul's Lutheran: Us 18; Them 36.
   
  Heights vs. Maryland School for the Deaf: Us 21; Them 54.
   
     Against St Pauls, we wrestled six matches.  Of matches actually wrestled, we won only one:  Mike Herman pinned his man in the third period, coming from behind, pointwise, to beat his opponent.  Max Breslin and John Alligood "won" their matches by forfeit. 
   
     Against  MSD, we wrestled seven matches.  They won five by forfeit; we won one by forfeit(Max again--he had no bouts today).  As for actually wrestled matches, we won three.  Peter Freimuth wrestled a skillful fight, winning by a decision ( 6-0).  Pat Stender, in the midst of being behind  6-0, flipped his man on his back in the 2nd period and pinned him!  His first win and a great morale boost for him and us all.  Pablo Melendez pinned his man in the 1st period.  He executed his signature move, "The Pablo"( a.k.a The Hip Roll), to great effect. 

• 01/19 - 4:30 pm
  @ Massanutten Military Academy - Away
  

   
       We left the Heights at 7:20am with nine guys in six weight classes ready to wrestle.  Two guys were sick and we had two no-show's.
   
      Against the McLean School, our near neighbors around the corner, we lost 3 of 3 matches--and all three involved one of their men "wrestling up" in weight against our men(Roe, Alligood, Melendez).  They had one more guy available, but he weighed 112, so we had no one to wrestle him.  Pointwise, due to forfeits, we won, but it seems irrelevant under the circumstances.

    Matt Roe did a solid job, Jon Alligood did his best with his abilities, and Pablo Melendez seemed a bit tentative.  It appeared that a week with no practice did not help our circumstances.
   
    Against MMA, the picture was a bit brighter.  They only had four guys to match us in available weight classes.  Alligood again got demolished by a very good 145 pounder.  Zack Blewett, coming off a kidney injury, lost to the same guy at the end of the match in an exhibition bout.  However, the sun began to shine on us at the end.  Matt Roe pinned his man in his second bout for the day.  Pat Stender--wrestling just minutes after his mom with several kids in tow arrived to observe, pinned his man in the first period--a repeat performance from last week's against the Maryland School for the Deaf.  Finally, Steve ("Cross Face Cradle") Babendreier pinned his man with seconds left in the first period, after several hair-raising near self-pinning moments in the preceding minute.  
   
     In addition to Pat Stender's mom and younger siblings, his aunt and uncle were there, as were Mrs. Kearns and Seamus, who have a vacation home down that way.  It was nice to have a small cheering section on hand- - it was even bigger than MMA's.
  
  
  On to our next opponent!! 
• 01/25 - 4:30 pm
  vs McLean & MSD - Away at McLean School
  

        We wrestled Friday night against two teams--the McLean School and the Model School for the Deaf. Against McLean we wrestled five bouts and lost four of them.  Two of their men were actually on loan from the Barry School, which also has a nascent wrestling team.  Pat Stender wracked up his third pin against a skinny, long-haired newbie from Barry.  Things went even worse, team-wise, against the Model School.  They had a person for every weight class, which we did not.  One bright moment--rookie Steve Babendreier pinned his man at 189 (Pablo Melendez unable to wrestle Friday because his boss said he'd be fired if he missed one more Friday work night).  Model is a well-oiled machine.  It will be interesting to see how they do next weekend in our league championship.

• 01/26 - 7:00 am
  JV @ St James - Away
  

   Saturday morning, we took a pretty good-sized group of guys up to Saint James School for a JV tournament.  No seniors allowed.  No juniors with three years of experience.  So the playing field was a little more level for us.  The bad news, which is also good news, is that we finished 6 of 7 teams.  The bad part of it is that going into the finals, we were fourth.  Mike Herman and Matt Roe won silver medals.  Max Breslin won a bronze.  Peter Freimuth, George Gerohristodoulos, and Steve Babendreier each placed fourth.  Had a few more of the guys won their championship  bouts, we might have finished third.  Oh well.  More good news.  Kevin Lutes for the first time ever made it into the second period and didn't get pinned until well into the second period.  I had told him before that my goal for him was to survive the first period.  He did it!  He is a plucky fellow.  Alexander Nelson won his first match--and by pin!  John Alligood survived a full six minutes on the mat against his first opponent, and even scored a takedown.  His match was probably my favorite because  his Ichabod Crane body-type makes it hard for him to prevail against quick little fireplugs.  In this match, he held his own and could have won if a few things had gone differently. 
  

• 01/31 - 5:00 pm
  @ St Andrews - Away
  
• 02/02 - 7:00 am
  MAWL Championships - Away
  

  Gentlemen,
      Saturday our wrestlers competed in our first league wrestling championship up at the Maryland School for the Deaf in Frederick.  Member of the Metropolitan Area Wrestling League are: Maryland School for the Deaf, Saint Anselm Abbey School, The McLean School of Potomac, The Model School for the Deaf, Edmund Burke School, Hyde Charter School of D.C., Massanutten Military Academy of Woodstock, VA, and ourselves.  The "bad" news first:  we finished last with 50 points, one point behind the #7 finisher, The McLean School.  The #1 team, Saint Anselm's, had 96.5 points.
  
      The good news will follow after I give the line-up.  Peter Freimuth, our 119.   Alexander "Sanjiya" Nelson (130), George Gerohristodoulos(135), Matt Roe (140), John Alligood (145), Pat Stender (152) (Pat has permanently filled the spot vacated by Zack Blewett, Max Breslin (160), Pablo Melendez (189), Mike Herman (215) and Joe Mehan (275).  Alexander through Pat, minus George, were wiped off the mat pretty quickly--each going down and out after two bouts each.  George only had one man in his bracket due to other schools having the same kind of last minute "no-shows" as we did with Peter.  As a result, George only wrestled once--losing--but still picking-up a second place championship medal and winning us team-points!!

  Max received a bronze medal, Pablo finished 4th, losing a nail-biter 14-13 bout that nearly turned my hair white, Mike Herman received a silver medal--the first place finisher at 215 being in a class far elevated above and beyond our level of current development, but Mike wrestled very well against everyone.  
  Finally, Joe Mehan was undefeated in the championship, receiving a gold medal and showing outstanding character and skill throughout.  He weighs 225.  One opponent, weighing 260, managed to bounce off Joe's chest cavity when Joe was trying to bring him to the mat.  The sound was awful.  But Joe didn't bat an eye and just kept pushing the guy around the mat.  Another guy, who Joe beat in the final bout, must have weighed 275.  Joe had him on his back and kicking like a box turtle on hot concrete within 30 seconds, pinning him in the first period.  
  To re-cap: one first, two seconds, one third and one fourth place.
  
       All of you would have been proud of our wrestlers, especially the ones who placed.  They really showed character in matches that sometimes went the full six minutes.  Also, not a shred of bad manners.  In fact, all the schools performed very well on that note.  The MAWL is a good league for us to be in.
   
        I had hoped to squeeze-in a home match on 5 or 6 February with Jewish Day School, which started a team this year, but their coach went away for two weeks and their team more or less dissipated during his absence.  We have one more dual-meet at Potomac on 12 Feb.  We wrestle in the Maryland Independent Schools Wrestling Championship on 15-16 February, and that will be it for our second season of wrestling.
  
  
  Chris Breslin
  Head Coach
• 02/12 - 4:30 pm
  @ Potomac - Away
  
• 02/16 - 7:00 am
  @ State Championships - Away