A Winter for Watkins Mill to Remember

Emotions ran high at Watkins Mill High School as hundreds of Wolverine faithful came together Thursday night to celebrate their student-athletes’ accomplishments this winter season—in the classroom as well as the hard-court or swimming pool or wrestling mat.

Nearly 70 winter athletes made the honor roll this season, while the swimming, girls’ basketball and wrestling teams posted impressive results, helping reflect that Watkins Mill sports is continuing its upward trend, said Boosters Club president Elizabeth King.

“It shows that we are a force to be reckoned with. We show our pride, we show that we have spirit, and we show that everybody here holds Watkins Mill to a higher standard,” she said. “We should be able to hold our heads high. Living here almost all my life, you hear the ups and downs, but I am proud to say I am a Watkins Mill parent, and so should everybody here. And all the students: be proud.”

Swimming

The accolades came aplenty from first-year swim coach Bryan Clark, as the Watkins Mill girls finished 6-2 and the boys 4-4, both sides coming in third in their division.

The season’s highlights included:

Patrick King winning the 50-yard freestyle at the divisional championships in 24.19 seconds; Kelly Lewis and Rose Mahoney finishing first and second in the 100-yard breaststroke at the divisional championships; and Nick Lechner winning the 200-yard individual medley and placing second in 100-yard freestyle.

Lechner’s performance also qualified for Metro championships, were he finished 15th with a time of 2:01.36 -- only 3.09 seconds off the school record.

“And he can break that record his senior year,” Clark said.

Girls’ Basketball

The four-year journey that coach Ivan Hicks has shared with two of the best players Watkins Mill has ever had culminated in high drama this season as the Lady ‘Rines reached their division’s regional semifinals in the state playoffs, where they lost a heartbreaker to high-powered Frederick High School, which went on to win the division’s state title.

The trio of Hicks and seniors Jasmine McRoy and Jartu Toweh started at Watkins Mill in the 2007-2008 season, lifting the program from four wins that year to 15 wins this year. Along the way this season, Watkins Mill notched memorable wins against Churchill in overtime, Damascus at the buzzer and Blake on the road in first round of playoffs.

“And the most important thing—team GPA: 3.0,” Hicks said.

Hicks had nothing but praise for his star players.

“They exemplify a student-athlete,” he said. “They took care of business in the classroom and they took care of business on the court, and I thank them very much.”

Wrestling

The varsity/JV wrestling team boisterously made its presence felt at Thursday night’s ceremony, much in the way they did during the season, Watkins Mill’s best in five years. The grapplers finished with seven wins and seven losses—and at 28 wrestlers, with the largest team since coach Tim Lowe took the program over.

It’s also a young team on the rise: half of this season’s grapplers were freshmen or sophomores, and many of them were wrestling for the first time.

At the Big Train Duals, Steven Rodriguez won his weight class, Bobby Davis and Javier Ramirez took 2nd, and Carlos Molina 3rd. Three wrestlers placed at the Grapple at the Brook: Rodriguez, Molina and freshman Johnny Lam. The Wolverines then capped their season by placing four wrestlers at regionals: Molina, Rodriguez, Davis and Ramirez.

“The self-discipline and determination that it takes to be a wrestler is different than any other sport,” Lowe said. “It’s just grueling; you have to control your weight, you have to have extreme muscular endurance, flexibility, anything you can think of will end up being exercised in a wrestling match, and that is something that we are proud of as wrestlers.”

Cheerleading

Cheerleading coach Kauri Martin promised that she wasn’t going to cry.

“This team has been one of the most amazing bunch of girls I have ever experienced. We started out with a completely different team than what we ended up with. But what we did end up with was a bunch of winners,” she said. “We won together, we failed together, we cried together and we laughed together. … I couldn’t have asked for a better group of girls in the world. … It breaks my heart because these girls have been more than just students to me. They’ve been like my own children. “

But her emotions came to the surface as she talked about losing her four-year cheerleaders, Kinyatta Moore and Jocelyn Brown.

“I also want to say one last thing to Kinyatta. She has been—unbelievable.”

Martin stopped, unable to hold the tears back.

“Kinyatta, I love you. I’m going to miss you so much,” she said.

Kinyatta ran back onto the stage and hugged her coach long and hard as the room lit up in applause.

Boys’ Basketball

This season for varsity boys’ basketball “was as big of a roller coaster ride as you could imagine,” said Coach Jay Tringone. The season started full of promise as the Wolverines won their holiday tournament on their way to an 8-3 record, putting them at the top of the 3A West region. Those early highs gave way to frustrating lows of a 12-game losing streak to finish the season.

Tringone had debated what to say Thursday night, deciding to go with “some of the things that I believe in.”

“You have a group of people here behind me—in terms of administrators, athletic directors and coaches—that have more pride in what they do than any group of coaches I’ve ever worked with,” he said. “This is a very prideful group of people, and it has shown throughout the course of my time in this athletic department over the last four years, in the product we have been putting out.”

Despite the disappointing finish, the program is “headed in the right direction,” having won more games in each of the last two years.

“What I also believe is that you can’t just win on the court. You have to win off the court. And winning is not a sometimes thing; it is an every time thing,” Tringone said. “… Take pride in what you do. And if you’re going to the next level to compete, being an athlete is a privilege. It is special. And it is a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Poms

After the best Poms season in three years, coach Beth Jordan said a bittersweet goodbye to six seniors, four of whom have been on Poms for four years: Brittany Waldron, Soraya Anderson, Nebiat Asmamaw and Karen Rius.

“I say goodbye to four seniors that I met when they were little freshmen and I’ve had the honor of watching them grow into the young women that they are today,” Jordan said. “… So to Brittany, Soraya, Karen and Nebiat, I would like to say how grateful I am for your dedication over these years, and showing me respect and showing our team respect. Tonight I finish as your coach but I will always be your friend.”

Indoor Track

With a “very young group” of runners, Watkins Mills indoor track team had a strong season, placing fifth in the county championships, highlighted by Damiete Roberts’s victory in the 55-meter hurdles and Wylliam Yougnia’s second-place finishes in the 55-meter dash and the 300-meter dash.

The boys also placed 15th out of 120 teams at a meet at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania.

“The indoor track team has been very successful, and I’m very pleased and very proud of the kids,” said coach Deshawn Anderson.

Honor Roll athletes

Swim and dive -- Sandeep Bedi, Sarajane Campbell, Abigail Conklin, Sarah Crews, Eric Flandrau, Jacqueline Gardner, Rachel Hodge, Kelly Lewis, Julianne Mahoney, Rose Mahoney, Vanessa Moyonero, Madelyn Niffenegger, Michael Para, Millicent Pryphun, Myriam Rofrano, Kailey Schiefer, Mehar Segal, Emily Sperling, Jordan Stephenson, Aindi Tsami, Eric Valdez, Joshua Villanueava, Andrea Wade, Bria Ware, Jasmine Williams, Jonathan Zuniga

Girls’ varsity basketball -- Shanaya Braithwaite, Melanie Dakwa, Jasmine McRoy

Girls’ JV basketball -- Grace Garcia

Wrestling -- Evan Brophy, Leland Kraatz, Johnny Lam, Joshua Machicado, Jason Meka-Ze, Shane Soghomonian, Saurel Viagbo

Boys’ varsity basketball -- Shamel Averhart, Patrick Schlosser

Boys’ JV basketball -- Lawrence Agyekum, Stephen Leyva

Varsity Cheerleading -- Jocelyn Brown, Kinyatta Moore

JV Cheerleading -- Ayana Glanville, Pia Saciauso

Poms -- Soraya Anderson, Colleen Antonio, Bethei Etta, Karen Rius, Katie Ross, Brittany Waldron, Jennifer Wright

Indoor track -- Kellyn Galo, McKenna Guilds, Wagas Janjari, Sheila Naya, Ariel Rodriguez and Santon Shagavah

Straight A’s

Swim and dive -- Megan Hoveneir, Zachary Lazri, Nicholas Lechner, Helen Marsh, Angela Nino, Abigail Young

Cheerleading -- Erin Pendergrass

Poms -- Sarah Kober

Indoor track -- Kariah Guilds