Back on the home mat
North Point wrestling rolls past St. Charles
Coming off a busy weekend at the Hub Cup tournament at North Hagerstown High School, the North Point wrestling returned to the mat on Tuesday night to take on visiting St. Charles in a Southern Maryland Athletic Conference contest.
In its first home match since the season opener on Dec. 6, the Eagles cruised to a 75-6 victory over a Spartans lineup that featured just six wres- tlers.
North Point (9-14 over- all, 5-1 SMAC), which suf- fered its lone conference defeat to Northern on Dec. 13 in a tri-match that included Calvert, won 13 of the 14 weight classes with eight coming to for- feits and four from pins.
Next up for the Eagles is county foe La Plata (19-13, 6-0) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
“St. Charles competed and has some tough wres- tlers that are learning and the program is still devel- oping,” said North Point head coach Will Leonard, whose team placed 12th out of 22 teams in the Hub Cup with 90 points. Host North Hagerstown won with 181.50. “I thought we wrestled well tonight. Looking forward to the rubber match versus La Plata and we had a big weekend in the Hub Cup. So our guys are grinding it out and it is all about being there in March.
North Point’s Caleb Blancaflor kicked off the match with a win by for- feit in 120-pound weight class and Andre Castro followed up with a 3-0 win by decision for the Eagles over St. Charles’ Chito Del Rosario at 126, the closest bout of the match.
After junior Timothy Molock picked up the Spartans’ only win of the match at 138 with a pin over North Point’s Ethan Walker, the Eagles won the next 10 weight classes.
Isaiah Edmond (132), Michael Meade (145), Aidan Oakes (152), and Elijah Griggs (170) all had pins for North Point.
“It is all about getting better and learning from your mistakes,” said Griggs who pinned St. Charles’ R.J. Burrell in the win. “St. Charles was limited and we have a lot
of wrestlers, but it was a good win for us moving forward. We faced La Plata already in a duals tournament, so it will be another tough test for us.”
Brandon Salinas (160), Jaden Mack (182), Kyle Batchelor (195), Xavier Prince (220), and Seth Talbert (285) each won by forfeit.
“We are a very young team. We have a couple of seniors and a good core of juniors, so we are developing and looking finish this year off strong and come back with a strong group next year,” Leonard said.
With another low turnout of wrestlers for St. Charles (3-13, 2-5) this season, head coach Jason Kiessling is still hoping to fill the team roster at some point.
“It has been a frustrating season so far. We started off with nine wrestlers originally, but it comes down to commitment and the six that I have are very committed,” Kiessling said. “They show up to practice every day and work hard and are still green and continuing to learn the sport. We are still encouraging guys to come out to the team. Our wrestlers are limited with partners and it is tough to improve with a small group of kids.”
St. Charles is scheduled to be at Poolesville High School in Montgomery County today and Saturday for the Dorsey duals tournament, then returns to SMAC action at 5 p.m. Tuesday in a tri-match at Northern that will also include Huntingtown.