THE GAZETTE
Page B-4
Wednesday, December 18, 2013 z
Georgetown Prep’s wrestling team full of youth With 11 freshmen on the roster, talented Hoyas will learn as they go
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BY NICK CAMMAROTA STAFF WRITER
Georgetown Prep wrestling coach Mike Kubik always has been forthcoming when it comes to describing his team, for better or worse. The Little Hoyas once again have started the year with high hopes, as is perennially the case
at the North Bethesda private school, but things are a little different this time around. While a majority of teams in high school sports tend to have a similar roster construction: heavy with seniors, a solid crop of juniors, sophomores behind them and a sprinkling of freshman, the Hoyas have inverted that pyramid with their 2013-14 group. On Kubik’s varsity team are 11 freshman, followed by four sophomores, six juniors and three seniors (one who’s out for the year). “I’d say it might be the best freshman class I’ve ever had. It’s
very good,” Kubik said. “We’re just incredibly young. But the kids are getting better every time they step in the room.” Two First Team All-Gazette wrestlers return for Georgetown Prep in senior Michael Sprague (138 pounds) and junior Colin Kowalski (132). Sprague took second in the state last season and went 45-7 while Kowalski placed seventh at National Preps. That duo, along with senior Patrick Stewart (285) and superstar freshman Eric Hong (120) form the nucleus of a squad that, while still learning at a rapid rate, has the
potential to be very dangerous come March. Behind them, freshmen Joe McCord (106) and Bryant Boswell (170) have jumped into starting roles and are performing well while juniors Paul Triandafilou (220) and Spencer Gottshall (152) help balance out the blend of experience and youth. “Some of the kids are getting better in the six minutes of every match they wrestle,” Kubik said. “You can watch them improving as they go on from period to period. It’s hard for the coaches because we still have some horses and we’re still pretty good, but
there will be a lot of learning.” One of Prep’s “horses,” naturally, happens to be a freshman. Hong, a resident student from Pittsburgh, won five consecutive Pennsylvania Junior Wrestling State Championships and earned seven career medals in 10 tournament appearances. He’s started this season off with a 6-3 record. “He’s so good you forget that he’s a young guy,” Kubik said. “Even though we’ve got guys who are inexperienced at the high school level, there’s still a lot of experience in the room.” As a freshman, Sprague re-
members the impact the senior leaders made on him as he attempted to learn the intricacies of practice. Everything from the school’s pre-match traditions to executing the most basic moves. Now that he’s in a similar position of leadership, he’s relishing the opportunity to make a difference. “I remember when I was a freshman and I definitely looked up to the seniors, so I’m trying to be that same type of role model for them now,” Sprague said. “We’re teaching and helping them all learn how we do things, and we’re starting to see that stick.”
Magruder senior recommitted self for wrestling season Barnes, after overcoming injury and attending camp, set for solid year
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BY NICK CAMMAROTA STAFF WRITER
During the offseason, Col. Zadok Magruder High School wrestler Andrew Barnes — as so many high school athletes on the verge of their senior seasons do — made a commitment to himself that he was going to improve his form. He was going to get stron-
ger, faster and better prepared to handle the rigors of the sport he’d been playing since he was 6 years old. But instead of simply putting in longer hours at the gym, or working the moves a few extra times against his older brother, Kamen, he took things one step further. He enrolled in the J RobinsonIntensiveCampatEdinboro University — a program run by University of Minnesota wrestling coach J Robinson aimed at pushing participants to the limits of their physical and mental abilities. Barnes woke up at 6:30 a.m. every day, worked out for 30 min-
utes, ate breakfast, practiced and learned various techniques for the mind and body, ate dinner, worked out for another 30 minutes and went to bed at 11 p.m. For two weeks, that was his life. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” said Barnes, 17. “They taught me that wrestling isn’t about only wrestling, it’s about becoming a man. I learned different philosophies, responsibilities and discipline. It made me mature and got me a lot stronger.” Barnes, the Colonels’ captain, is going to need that additional strength if he hopes to lead Magruder to a successful 2013-14
campaign. “That camp built him up mentally,” said Magruder coach Andrew Tao. “He came back this year with a different mentality and that’s good because he’s the only captain of the team right now.” Barnes’ father was a wrestler during high school in Florida and coached at the Montgomery Village wrestling club for many years. He encouraged his sons to join the sport and they both took a liking to it. “In middle school I thought about not doing it anymore, but I wanted to continue. It’s the one thing that I did that I loved. So I
just kept going on,” said Andrew Barnes, who competes in the 126-pound weight class. Barnes nearly was pushed to the brink of giving up during his injury-riddled sophomore season. He partially separated his labrum and missed half the season while recovering. Then, as he was working his way back to full strength, he contracted pneumonia and was forced to miss the rest of the year. It all adds to his accumulation of overcoming difficult situations. One moment, in particular, is his favorite of any on the mat so far. While competing in the Hub
Cup tournament last season, he was hit in the face and broke his nose during the third- and fourthplace match. After a lengthy delay, with blood everywhere, they bandaged his entire face and he was able to continue. A few minutes later, Barnes ended up taking third. “I love the challenge,” Barnes said. “I love going out there and wrestling people I’ve never wrestled before. And when you’re wrestling someone and you feel them give up and you know that you won, that’s a great feeling too.”
Swimmers’ focus during championship season could change BY JENNIFER BEEKMAN STAFF WRITER
Sports, by nature, are unpredictable. It’s part of their appeal. When two high school basketball teams face each other there is likely one favorite, on paper, but it’s impossible to predict exactly what will happen on game day. Timed sports, such as swimming, however, fall into a different category. Race results can, to some degree, be predicted. While certain competitions, varying envi-
ronments and facilities can bring out different times, chances are athletes will not be able to shave more than a few seconds off their times in a matter of days. For the past four years it was all but guaranteed that former Our Lady of Good Counsel High School star Jack Conger would win any event he chose to contest — he currently holds Metros records in five of 11 swimming events. But the graduation of Conger — who, as a freshman at the University of Texas has already achieved automatic NCAA championship qualifying times in the 100-yard butterfly and 200-backstroke — as part of an overall talented Class of 2013, has
100-yard freestyle, six of the top 10, also are gone. The 500-yard freestyle, won by Conger a year ago, looks to be the most stacked with six of the top 10 returning and all of them are national-caliber talents. Seven of the top finishers in the 200-yard individual medley are also back and not much separated them last winter. Of course, there’s no guarantee where anyone will be swimming during championship season in February. Good Counsel senior Brady Welch has finished in the top four of the 500yard freestyle each of the past two years but said he hasn’t settled on contesting that event in two
months’ time. “It’s definitely a possibility for me and a lot of the other swimmers to change up what the status quo is and go after other races,” Welch said. “There are a lot more openings in the shorter distances. In years’ past the focus has been mainly on the 50 and 100 free but this year there is going to be a huge shift with the attention toward the 500 because of the amount of talent there this year. ... You have to be on a high national level just to make the final.” The second week in February seems like it’s eons away, but preparation for Metros and championship season started on the first day of the 2013-14 season.
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Athletes in all sports aim to peak as they head into the postseason and swimming is no different. But to contest certain events at Metros, athletes must achieve certain qualifying times throughout the course of the season. Montgomery County Pubic School swimmers are also then restricted to compete at the season-ending state championships in whichever events they race at the regional meets the prior week. “There are a lot of openings and there are going to be people swimming different events if there is an opening to win those events,” Walt Whitman coach Geoff Schaefer said.
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opened up some opportunities for returning high school athletes this winter. “I think there are kids now that are going to have the spotlight on them that didn’t before because they were overshadowed by Jack,” Walter Johnson coach Jamie Grimes said in the preseason. “I do think we lost a lot of senior depth in a couple events. It will be interesting to see what the county has left on the boys’ side.” Coaches agreed the sprint freestyle events seem to be the most up in the air at this early stage of the season. The top eight finishers in last year’s 50-yard freestyle, and nine of the top 10, were seniors. The top three in the
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Graduation of several swimmers has opened doors for this year’s athletes n