By Thomas Grant Jr.
Call it a “Revenge Repeat” for the Cardinal Newman wrestling team.
Back on Dec. 18, 2024, the Cardinals were defeated 50-18 by Ben Lippen School
This past Saturday, they returned to the scene of their lone loss. At stake was the team championship title Cardinal Newman regained for the first time in six years.
Motivated by the previous loss and claiming state title number 11, the Cardinals pulled out the 52-30 victory.
(Photos courtesy of Backthebird.com)
“We talked about that all year…belief in the team, believe in one,” Cardinal Newman head coach Cole McCarter said. “Just come together as family. Wrestle together as a family and really just lean on what we do. Just be good in what we do and we worked hard. We take pride and working hard in the weight room. We kept our nose on the ground and just stayed our foot on the gas and just got better day in and day out.”
The final started out in the Falcons’ favor. They posted pinfall victories in three of the first four matchups in the heavy weight classes.
Once it shifted to the lower divisions, Cardinal Newman (14-1) took control of the match. Down 18-5, the Cardinals got a 35-second pinfall win by 106-pounder Carter Lirgg.
After a decision victory made it 18-16, Cardinal Newman posted six consecutive pinfalls. Eli Lorang, Vincent Battle, Cooper Smythe, Luke Gjoklaj, Jason Wagner, and Joseph Battle all accounted for victories during that run to clinch the repeat title for the Cardinals.
“We’ve always had really, really good lightweights and we knew we had a wonderful opportunity to roll down low and we just said we’ve got to weather the storm a little bit and let our guys do what we do best,” McCarter said.
Ben Lippen (13-2) won the final two matches by forfeit and pinfall by Roper Coker at 165 lbs. Afterwards, head coach Paul Beckwith said his team was as caught off guard by Cardinal Newman as the Cardinals were by the Falcons in the first meeting.
“Throughout the whole process of going back through the playoffs and going back and forth, they’ve gotten, better, we’ve gotten better,” he said. “It’s not about situational wrestling. It’s more about semantics too. Seeing who to send out and who you want to wrestle with. Tonight, they were on and we weren’t. It’s that simple.”
It was also a gold medal day for five Cardinal Newman middle schoolers. David Regan (98 lbs.), Jackson Chambers & Jacob Wagner (both 110 lbs.), Johnny Foster (122 lbs.) and Xander Yarnall (128 lbs.) all placed first in the individual middle school championships.
The SCISA high school individual championships will take place Saturday at Cardinal Newman.
