The Walkersville Lions Wrestling team climbed all the way to the top of the mountain just to fall off of the cliff in the end. The Lions started off their season with some big wins against Frederick, Linganore and Oakdale. This was a major accomplishment for the wrestling team due to the fact that Linganore had won the 2023-2024 three A team state championship. Early on in the season Walkersville Wrestling was expected to dominate. Team Captain, Gino Dolan (190) says, “I thought we were doing pretty well and I was really excited. We hadn’t done as well in years past and we started crushing teams nobody expected us to beat”. Gino has been wrestling with Walkersville for four years and has been a positive and motivational teammate.
As the season continued on the team’s performance started to decline with injuries to many of their wrestlers. Injuries to key wrestlers like Senior, Jack Birth (157) faced a knee injury; Junior, Rhys Ferguson (144) with a shoulder injury; and Sophomore, Alexis Nicholas (120) with a hand injury, lead the team to taking a hit. Due to the plethora of injuries Walkersville was unable to hold their position at the top.
The team ended their season on a rough note losing to Winters Mill in the regional quarterfinals. Walkersville fell short of their projected position and were expected to be far more successful in the postseason dual meets. Sophomore, Isaac Hassett (126) also was faced with an injury further reducing their numbers. Sophomore Max Birth (175) says, “We had a lot of our best wrestlers missing practices and matches because of injuries so the team hit a downwards slope when we needed to be peaking”. It was an unfortunate end the wrestling team had this season, but we are looking forward to seeing how everyone does next year.
Jack Birth
Although the end of the season was disappointing there were still some outstanding wrestlers this season. Highlighting an outstanding wrestler Team Captain, Jack Birth with 32-3 on the season. He has been wrestling with Walkersville’s high school program for all four years and has made a huge impact on the program. His freshman year he started out wrestling the 132 pound weight class and has since climbed to his highest weight class at 165 pounds. This year he had an exceptional season, winning his first 30 matches. Placing first at counties, he faced his first loss in the regional tournament against Caleb Brenneman of Northern Garrett, taking second place. Birth says, “I feel like my regular season was as good as it gets but the wheels fell off in the postseason”. Though he had a remarkable regular season, his results at the state tournament were unexpected. Birth also hit his 100th win during his senior season at the Winters Mill tournament. With so many milestones hit and goals achieved during the season Birth stood out as a vital wrestler for Walkersville this year. During his season this year Jack committed to Shenandoah University to continue his wrestling career.
Rhys Ferguson
Another wrestler that has stood out in Walkersville Wrestling is Junior, Rhys Ferguson in the 144 pound weight class. His record this season was 36-4, placing third at counties, regions, and states. Rhys was one of two Walkersville wrestlers to place at states this year. He has been at Walkersville for all three years of his high school career and has already reached 100 wins. He ended his season with a little over 100 wins. He has been a pivotal wrestler for Walkersville every year and is expected to continue his vitality for WHS next year. When asked about this season he stated, “All of us did pretty well. I had the luck of the draw I guess. I am really happy with how I did”. Although he says he had “the luck of the draw”, he worked hard and the results showed in the end.
Alexis Nicholas
The last wrestler being mentioned is Sophomore Alexis Nicholas in the 120 pound weight class. Alexis is being mentioned because not only did she have a phenomenal season with a record of 27-9, but she is also one of the few girl wrestlers who also wrestles boys. Last year she had no choice but to wrestle with the boys team due to Walkersville not yet having girls wrestling. With the increased interest in girls wrestling this year Walkersville made an all girls team; despite this, Nicholas still wrestled boys when she could. When asked about her team and how their season went she said, “I think both the boys and girls team had a great season; everyone worked extremely hard. I am especially proud of the girl team because all of them showed how hard they wanted to work, and improved so much from the beginning of the season”. She placed third in the girls states even after dislocating her thumb just a few weeks prior. She said, “I am happy with how my season turned out this year. One of my goals was to have a better record than last season, which I did… I had to overcome not being an offensive wrestler because I was extremely defensive for most of my wrestling career…”
Despite the unfortunate end Walkersville Wrestling saw as a team, individually many athletes excelled throughout the season. Keeping an optimistic attitude and pushing through will help lead to a more successful season and hopes are high for Walkersville Wrestling’s future.
