Once again, the McDonogh wrestling team has won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference championship. This is their third straight championship, as the Eagles sent a total of 10 wrestlers to the finals and seven walked away as champions.
The two-day event (Feb. 8-9) was held at Mount St. Joseph High School, Irvington, and many watched as McDonogh senior Josh Fitch (140) won his fourth MIAA title.
While McDonogh won the title, Mount St. Joe did its best to try to keep up. St. Joe was the runner-up to McDonogh, with Archbishop Curley placing third. Contributing in a huge way for the Gaels was sophomore Bobby Bowman (152) who upset Shane Milam, the favorite heading into the match, by a 3-2 decision.
Bowman, who received “The Outstanding Wrestler” trophy was ecstatic, saying, “Yeah, man, the win felt great. I never have beaten him (Milam) before. I wrestled the way I wanted to and came out on top. I can’t really explain the feeling.”
Two other championship winners for Mount St. Joe were sophomore, Benny Schaufele (130) and senior Karl Green (285). Patrick Downey and Matt Mullet won their finals match in the consolation finals.
While he didn’t win his first-round match, Gaels sophomore Gino Pollock understands that the season isn’t over and that St. Joe can still come up big to end their season strong.
“The Maryland State Independent Tournament is next week (Feb. 15- 16), and we definitely want to win there. I feel our team is very talented and, hopefully, we can pull it off and end our season on a very good note,” said Pollock.
The team results saw McDonogh in first with 288.5, Mount St. Joseph in second with 223, Archbishop Curley in third with 197, John Carroll in fourth with 142.5, Calvert Hall in fifth with 128.5, Loyola Blakefield in sixth with 105.5, and Archbishop Spalding in seventh with 76. St. Mary’s came in 10th with 61.