BearSportsNews Sunday Edition 12.29.2024

Holiday schedules are typically scant. However, this pre-NYE weekend is well suited for hopes for the NEXT YEAR. Bears in the Winter Seasons inside and beyond the White Rocks have already shown promise in their play. Spring sports (baseball, golf, lacrosse, swimming, track and tennis {with new home courts}) always are seasons chasing excellence. Looking forward to recording those achievements (FIRST SEASON covered 2010).

Here’s some news from the break:

BASKETBALL from Coach Bohlen – a good win and a tough loss; next game 1/6 6pm home v. Woodbridge High School 

WRESTLING—from Coach Katz

It has been a while since the last update, but the team has been quite busy. 

On December 18, the Varsity A traveled to the Potomac school in Virginia.  The Panther team was supposed to have 5 returning state place winners.  Unfortunately, between injuries and sickness, they only had 5 wrestlers which made it a quick night.  We won 3 of the 5.  The final team score was 71-9.  Freshman TEDDY ABRAMSON (113) and Junior LOUIS MCNAMARA (150) won by pins. Sophomore JUDAH BROWN (120) won by technical fall. 

The highlight of the evening was the team victory, which marked my 300th career win at Landon. I was deeply moved by the presence of many alumni who came to celebrate this milestone with me. It was a truly special night, filled with memories shared with wrestlers dating back to the class of 2000. The team surprised me with balloons, a beautiful poster for my office, and most touching of all, a handcrafted wooden box filled with heartfelt notes from wrestlers past and present. A sincere thank you to everyone who took the time to send a note through Mr. Smith. Reading about the impact the program has had on so many wrestlers has been incredibly meaningful to me, and I will treasure these letters always.

On December 19, we hosted a JV Jamboree with about 140 wrestlers.  Our Varsity B wrestlers did really well and continue to improve with every minute on the mat. 

The next day, four wrestlers departed to the Beast of the East hosted by the university of Delaware.  It is one of the most competitive high school tournaments in the country.  Led by Junior JOE PAPALIA (132), underclassmen Sophomore MAX MURRY (144), and freshmen ELIJAH ADAMS (106) and JASON HINTON (285) represented Landon well.  Each wrestler gained invaluable experience and overall, these boys earned 11 points and place 115^th out of 183 schools represented from across the country.  Murray earned one victory, and Hinton made it to the round of 16 on the second day. 

On December 27 & 28, we had 9 wrestlers participate in the Damascus Holiday tournament.  It is a very competitive local tournament.  It is a hybrid tournament where the boys wrestled 7 duals over two days in two pools of 8 teams.  Then the top four from each pool wrestle an 8 man bracket individual tournament.  We had four wrestlers qualify for the tournament:  1) Sophomore DENNIS LEARY (113) went 6-1 in our pool and did not place.  2) MAX MURRAY (150) went 5-2 and placed 4^th overall. 3) Junior JOE PAPALIAwent 7-0 and place 3^rd overall. 4) Senior Captain THEO SHOCKEY went 7-0 and placed 2^nd overall.  This was Theo’s first competition after recovering from injury. It was good to see him back on the mat.

Our next competition is on January 10 at Landon.  It will be a quad against St. Stephens St. Agnes, Bullis and Good Counsel.  The dual against Bullis will most likely determine the IAC dual meet champion.  The first match against SSSA will be around 5 pm. 

BEAR TRAX—TRANSFER PORTAL

CHANTZ HARLEY to JMU from UMD.