St. Stephens/St. Agnes Wrestlers Showing Deep Determination

Photo by FLICKR/nashworld/4280612420/ In their recent match, the Saints rolled to a 42-27 victory to improve their overall record to 12-5.

ALEXANDRIA, VA. - The St. Stephens/St. Agnes wrestling team keeps turning in some impressive performances and is having one of their finest seasons in recent years.

In their recent match, on the road at IAC rival St. Albans,the Saints rolled to a 42-27 victory to improve their overall record to 12-5.

Virtually every match of the season commences with a different weight class, determined by a random draw supervised by the two head coaches before the match.

In last week's draw, the 285 pound weight class had the honors of leading off the proceedings. In the process, St. Stephens/St. Agnes roared to a 6-0 lead and never looked back.

Freshman heavyweight Jake Gamarra recorded a first period pin (17 seconds remaining in the two minute period) and the Saints would never trail the entire contest (14 seperate weight classes).

"Jake was able to headlock their kid and put him on his back" said St. Stephens/St. Agnes veteran head coach Joe Shabelski.

On the day, the Saints recorded five pins and also earned three major decisions.

Following Gamarra's pin, in order, sophomore Ben Luce (103 pounds) dropped a 6-2 decision; freshman Shaw Whitley (112 pounds) recorded a major decision with a 21-8 victory; freshman Chase Whitley (119) was pinned in the second period; sophomore Greg Voorhees (125) recorded a first period pin; senior Tyler Haley (130) recorded a 14-7 major decision; sophomore Brady Riles (135) dropped a tight 5-4 decision; junior Jonathan Herrera (140) recorded an impressive second period pin; sophomore Tyler Epperson (145) was pinned by his Bulldog opponent; junior Kyle Swenson (152) dropped a 7-0 decision; junior Erik Romanin (160) recorded a 14-5 major decision; sophomore Matt Brinckerhoff (171) recorded a first period pin; the Saints forfeited the 189 pound weight class; and then junior Anthony "Doc" Jacobsen recorded an impressive first period pin - to conclude the evenings scoring and earned the Saints their 42-27 victory.

 "I kind of outpowered and outmuscled him," Jacobsen said after the match. "My stance and my desire was key all match long."

In summing up, the homestanding Bulldogs won five of the 14 matches (as well as one forfeit); conversely the visiting Saints won eight of the 14 matches.

On the season, thus far, some of the Saints other team victories have come against: IAC foes Bullis, Episcopal and Landon as well as against: T.C. Williams, Falls Church, JEB Stuart and West Springfield - just to name a few.

In the upcoming weeks, the Saints should contend quite well in the IAC Championships and in the prestigious St. Albans Invitational.

Caps on a Roll

The Washington Capitals continue to be on a roll. At this chronological juncture (February 2nd), the Caps are leading the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference with a record of 37 wins - 12 losses (six of the 12 losses have come in OT).

The Caps, coached by veteran Bruce Boudreau, have scored a league best 214 goals and have given up 149.

They have earned 80 points thus far in the season, which is second best in the entire league behind San Jose's 81 points.

In the Southeast Division, the Caps are well ahead of second-place Florida (24-23), third-place Atlanta (24-22), fourth-place Tampa Bay (22-21) and last-place Carolina (19-28).

The upcoming schedule is as follows: Feb. 2 - at Boston, Feb. 4 - at New York Rangers, Feb. 5 - home vs. Atlanta, Feb. 7 - home vs.

Pittsburgh, Feb. 10 - at Montreal, Feb. 11 - at Ottawa and Feb. 13 - at St. Louis.

The NHL will take an Olympic break between Feb. 14 - 28.

Play will resume on March 3rd when the Caps visit Buffalo.

According to the book - Inside Sports Magazine Hockey (published 1998 - with the foreword by Mike Emrick and edited by Zander Hollander) - it states just before page 1 that the Capitals commenced their first-ever season in 1974.

The book further states that of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League, the five teams with the longest duration of continuous play are as follows: the Montreal Canadiens (1917), the Boston Bruins (1924), the New York Rangers (1926) and the Chicago Black Hawks (1926) and the Toronto Maple Leafs (1926).

Six of the current 30 teams in the NHL have been in the league for less time than the Washington Capitals.

Those six teams are as follows: Edmonton Oilers (1979), San Jose Sharks (1991), Ottawa Senators (1992), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992), the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim (1993) and the Florida Panthers (1993).