National District Wrestling Championship

It may not be apparent when watching, but strategy is a much bigger factor in winning a wrestling match than plain physicality. Like a game of chess, you must know your opponent's strengths and weaknesses, you must know your own limitations, you must know how to counter your opponents attacks, and you must know how to counter your opponents counter moves. You must know all of this before the match even begins, and then when the whistle blows you must remain two moves ahead of your opponent. This was the mentally of Edison Head Coach Scott Racik when he decided to place Senior Wade Jacobson in the 135 lb. weight class, a move that proved critical to winning his fourth district championship title in six years.

Even up until the final round of Saturday's National District Wrestling Championships coach Racik believed that Mount Vernon was going to walk away with the title.

"Everything had to go perfectly," said Racik. "Mount Vernon is a well coached, very good team and I knew we were going to place fewer [wrestlers] than them, so we had to do everything right."

Going into the final round, Edison was up by one point over Mount Vernon, but with wins in the 119, 135, 140, and 189 lb. weight classes, they earned enough points to win by 10.

"A lot of the times I take it a lot more seriously than the kids do," said fifth year Mount Vernon head coach Anthony McDuffie.

At one point McDuffie considered retiring from coaching, but he's now glad he didn't after reaching a milestone last week and winning his 201st dual meet bout in 13 years. During his tenure, McDuffie has learned to coach with more humility towards the sport, because as he put it, "these are just kids and it's all about life lessons."

The lessons learned from the sport of wrestling were on display by the students throughout the meet as most of them walked around with smiles, win or lose. Lilly Bowen, a female freshman in the 103 lb weight class, lost her quarter-final and consolation match, but remained in high spirits as she watched and cheered her teammates on.

"On the mat you can't think about it too much," said Bowen. "When you over-think what you're doing, you'll mess up. It's a lot like life in that you just have to go with the flow."

Bowen, a self-described tomboy, was the only female competing in districts, and she plans to compete all four years of high school if she can remain in the same weight class.

Henry Majano, a Junior at Wakefield, attributed his win to the help of his teammates. He, Henry Vasquez, and Victor Leavell had all been to districts before and lost, and they made a pact to not let that happen again. All three won their respective weight classes and Majano also won the Most Outstanding Wrestler Award which was voted on by the districts eight head coaches.

"It makes me feel good to have the respect of my coaches," said Majano. "I really wanted to win."

Regardless of who moved on to regionals, the eyes and the smiles of the students showed that the meet was a team effort. Sort of the way a pawn sets up a rook to take a knight.

"From top to bottom this is the tightest team I've ever had," said Coach Racik. "But we were lucky, and I'd rather be lucky than good."

Checkmate.

Team Scores:

Edison - 170.00

Mount Vernon - 160.00

Washington & Lee - 148.50

Hayfield - 122.50

Yorktown - 115.00

Wakefield - 93.00

JEB Stuart - 74.00

Falls Church - 18.00

Weight Class Champions:

103: Henry Vasquez - Wakefield

112: Miga Khaadan - Washington & Lee

119: Brock Jacobson - Edison

125: Sahid Kargbo - Hayfield

130: Henry Majano - Wakefield

135: Wade Jacobson - Edison

140: Jeremy Wagner - Edison

145: Victor Leavell - Wakefield

152: Trey McClure - Mount Vernon

160: Chris Stone - Hayfield

171: Dusty Floyd - Mount Vernon

189: Camilo Rodriguez - Edison

215: David Cox - Hayfield

Heavy Weight: Tony Konjevoda - JEB Stuart