As the Varsity wrestlers waited and watched for Yokota’s heavyweight to take down Kinnick’s heavyweight and bring the Kanto Title back to St. Mary’s, the JV grapplers took matters into their own hands in tough brackets of mixed weight classes.
In the 115 lb weight class, which actually had wrestlers ranging from 101 – 115, the Titans had the deck stacked as two of the three wrestlers were Titans with the third being from rival Kinnick. Teppei Ono and Aaryan Batra took it to their Kinnick rival and allowed him to score only a single point in two matches. Teppei ultimately took gold with two wins by technical fall. Aaryan notched a win by technical fall as well and took silver. Hard to say which weight either of these two will end up at next season but both will be making a case for a varsity spot.
The 135 lb weight class had the most wrestlers and the biggest difference between strength as it pitted 122, 129 and 135 against each other. The Titans had four wrestlers in the ten wrestler group with Sophomores Kai Atobe and William Krcelic in opposite Round Robin pools. Both wrestlers had varsity matches this season and both placed in an open tournament with Kai taking Silver at the CAJ Invitational at 129 and William taking Gold at 122. Both wrestlers won all 4 of their matches by pin setting up yet another “Clash of the Titans” finale. This time William got the better of Kai and beat his long-time teammate by fall to take 1st Place. These are two strong candidates for varsity spots next season so hopefully they end up in different weight classes! Our other Titans in this bracket were Samin Hoque who took 3rd place in the 135B pool and first year wrestler Anish Krishnan who took 4th in the 135A pool.
The 141 lb weight class had three Titans vying for Gold as Jonathan Goff, Konstantin Meyer zu Brickwedde and Leon Yoshizue were joined by two Kinnick wrestlers and one from ASIJ. The Titan/Red Devil rivalry has managed to infiltrate even the JV ranks so it was Titan Leon v. Kinnick for Gold and Titan Konstantin v. Kinnick for Bronze. Leon came up short and settled for Silver while Konstantin won his match and took Bronze. Two more wrestlers that continue to improve and will be making a run for varsity next season.
The 148 lb weight class saw two Titans who have gotten progressively better and more aggressive over the last two seasons face off in the finals. Along the way Lev Titov had a phenomenal come from behind win against one of his Kinnick opponents that helped him win his pool notching two wins by fall and one by technical fall. Unfortunately, first year Titan Grappler Gio Cannegieter was one of Lev’s victims, but he was also the only wrestler not to get pinned by Lev and managed to take 3rd in the 148A pool. On the other side of the bracket, Cole Lawlor didn’t allow either of his two opponents to score a point against him as he recorded a win by fall and another by technical fall. Once again, it was a Titan final and this time Cole came away with the Gold and Lev settled for Silver. All three of the wrestlers in this bracket have the potential to make a difference on next year’s team.
Over all, our JV wrestlers did well. They all showed signs of very good wrestling and also exposed some areas that they’ll need to work on before next season. Aaryan, Kai and William were three of our JV wrestlers who placed in tournaments and competed in at least one varsity dual meet this season. They’ve contributed to team points and put together some decent records along the way:
- William Krcelic – Undefeated season going 5-0 in varsity matches. Won Gold at CAJ. Qualified for The Wall of Fame.
- Kai Atobe – Only a single loss this season, finishing with a record of 3-1. Won Silver at CAJ.
- Aaryan Batra – An overall record of 4-2. Won Silver at CAJ.