After an up and down 4-12 regular season, the Blue Jays were led by an individual champion and a runner-up en route to a 5th place finish at the Centennial Conference Championships this past Saturday at McDaniel College in Westminster, Md.
Two-time Centennial champion and senior Paul Bewak entered the championships looking to cap off his decorated career at Hopkins with a third championship in the 125 weight class.
He did so convincingly, dominating his three opponents 7-0, 11-2 and 8-0 in his final appearance in the Conference Championships.
In the 174 pound weight class, sophomore Jared Forman made a valiant run to the championships, grinding out 7-4 and 4-3 victories on his way to the finals where he lost to top-seeded AJ Kowal of Stevens Institute of Technology.
After winning his first bout 4-0, senior Christian Salera fell in the semifinals of the 157 pound weight class to Richard Jasinki of Ursinus College.
Salera would, however, go on to win out in the consolation bracket and help win Hopkins points by placing third. This is his second time finishing in the top three in the Conference following a second place finish last season.
The Jays also placed in the 149 after freshman Tommy Grifa rebounded from a first round defeat to win three straight matches and earn a spot in the third place match in his first Centennial Conference Championship of his career.
Grifa wound up falling to New York University’s Darryl Albonico 8-4 but still claimed fourth in the tournament. Seniors Welles Sakmar (165) and Evan Johnson (184), and sophomores Kory Johnson (197) and Ellis Flannery (285) all earned Hopkins points, combining for five wins as well.
Bewak acknowledged that the team did not have quite the performance they were hoping for in conference play this year.
“Due to a relatively young team, as well as some ongoing injuries, we didn’t have our best showing as a team at Conferences,” Bewak said.
Still, he maintained optimism moving forward. “We would have liked to have done better, but this was just another learning step getting us prepared for regionals and nationals, the two most important tournaments.
“The freshmen and sophomores have learned a lot over the year, and I feel they will become great leaders in their next few years to hopefully bring us back to the top of the conference,” Bewak said.
Bewak made it clear that although there were setbacks this season, there were still positive takeaways.
“Even though we’ve had setbacks, we are really good at taking away important information from them,” Bewak said. “We learn what does and doesn’t work, as well as how to handle tough times. It has definitely been hard but well worth the learning process for us all.”
Regionals are up next in two weeks, which Bewak and the other Hopkins wrestlers believe is all that matters.
“Your wins and losses don’t mean anything so long as you learned from your experiences and put it to good use next weekend and qualify for nationals,” Bewak said.
Bewak said that the plan moving forward would be to “have a hard week [this week] and tone it down a little next week so that we feel as fresh and healthy as possible so we can perform at our absolute best. Without a doubt many, if not all, members of the team have made significant gains in their wrestling abilities, and they will continue to grow in the coming years to help further build our program up.”
Hopkins wrestling will travel to compete in regionals next weekend in an attempt to qualify for nationals in March.
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