Photos by Cardinal Newman
By Thomas Grant Jr.
From the first match of the season, Cardinal Newman has remained the top-ranked wrestling team in SCISA.
“It was a season to be proud of,” head coach Cole McCarter said. “Even outside of the championships, we competed very well and wrestled a lot of matches this season. We were able to have our middle school guys wrestle around 20 matches this season, and our JV around 15 matches. All in all, beyond proud of every Cardinal Newman wrestler.”
It started Feb. 4 with the varsity team 3-peating as SCISA Class 4A champion on their home floor.
Cardinal Newman defeated Ben Lippen 54-22 in defeating its crosstown rival for the second straight year and fourth consecutive time in the past 12 months.
After falling behind 23-12, the Cardinals stormed back as Luke Gjoklaj at 175 lbs. and Ethan Ash at 190 pounds put Cardinal Newman ahead for good.
“I just wanted to go out there and win it for my team,” Ash said. “If you really want anything enough, you can get it if you try hard enough.”
The Cardinals closed out the championship by winning the final five matches. Winners were Ken Clark, Sami Touma, L.J. Murray, Carter Lirgg and Eli Lorang.
“Today was a little bit of up and down, but these guys just love to wrestle,” McCarter told the media. “It is one of those things that is hard to find and rare. They are all in on wrestling and want to be a part of this program. It makes it easy as coaches to keep kids locked in.”
Cardinal Newman returned home this past season to continue its winning ways at the individual state championships. The six grapplers earning gold medals were Lirgg (106 lbs.), Lorang (113 lbs.), Turner (120 lbs.), Triston Johnson (132 lbs.), Cooper Smythe (138 lbs.) and Shayne Ross (144 lbs.).
Gjoklaj placed second at 157 lbs., Jojo Battle (150 lbs.) and Caleb Casillas (215 lbs.) were third and Charlie Jones finished fourth at 165 lbs.
“Carter Lirgg, Eli Lorang, Jack Turner, Triston Johnson, Cooper Smythe, and Shayne Ross – these 6 have stayed dialed in and put on great performances this past Saturday,” McCarter said. “I was excited to see Cooper Smythe finally break through and win a title and was proud of Jack Turner for battling through tons of adversity. He completely tore his UCL back in December, so I know his title was special in every possible way.”
Next year looks even more promising for the Cardinals. They return 43 wrestlers to the program, including all six individual champions, Battle, Casillas and L.J. Murphy and Ethan Gottlieb, who did not compete last Saturday.
S.C. HIGH SCHOOL LEAGUE
The Blythewood girls’ and boys’ team saw their quest to Class 5A Division I titles end at the hands of Rock Hill.
The Lady Bengals dropped a 47-36 match to the Lady Bearcats in the semifinals. Rock Hill went on to defeat Greenwood for the title.
The Blythewood boys were edged 35-34 by Rock Hill in the third round.
The Spring Valley boys fell in the opening round to Dutch Fork.
