District Takedown

Jesuit High School, with its raucous Blue Tide student cheering section, has a well-earned reputation for creating the best home-team atmosphere in prep sports. But some Jesuit teams rarely experience it.

Wrestling, for example, hasn’t competed at home in five years, because the top wrestling programs now mostly compete in big weekend tournaments, not home-and-home dual meets.

Saturday (Feb. 28), for the first time since all of its team members were in middle or elementary school, Jesuit wrestling will have the home-mat advantage when it hosts the District Tournament.

Coach Mike Scicchitano ’01 hopes to use the friendly confines of the Tiger Palace as a springboard to Jesuit’s eighth District wrestling title in nine years, and its fifth straight.

“It’s rare that our kids get a chance to compete at Jesuit, so they’re really excited about it and the coaching staff is excited about it,” Scicchitano said.

The Tigers have battled an assortment of bumps and bruises typical of the grueling wrestling season and are hoping to be rounding into top condition for the District-Region-State Tournaments. Jesuit will have a wrestler competing in 13 of the 14 weight classes Saturday.

“Our kids feel great, and they have been training hard,” Scicchitano said. “We’ll rely on our training and push through the difficulties. Our kids are ready to do that.”

Class 2A, District 8 is the largest in the state with 13 teams. Therefore every weight class will have good depth, making it harder for wrestlers to qualify for the Region Tournament.

Five current Jesuit wrestlers were individual District champions in 2014 – Jarrett Roop ’17, R.C. Consuegra ’15, Adam Lewis ’16, Brian Buser ’16, and Nick Mosco ’17. All will be competing in the District Tournament, though some in different weight classes from a year ago.

(Homepage photo: Lewis [left] and Consuegra go head-to-head at practice on Feb. 26)

Below is Jesuit’s lineup for Saturday, with their record this season:

• 106 – Luke Surak ’18 (5-2)
• 113 – Jarrett Roop ’17 (17-8)
• 120 – Matt Daner ’17 (22-18)
• 126 – R.C. Consuegra ’15 (22-5)
• 132 – Grayson Fisher ’18 (24-13)
• 138 – Angel Dominguez ’18 (20-13)
• 145 – Adam Lewis ’16 (35-4)
• 152 – Dean Berninghaus ’16 (20-13)
• 160 – Connor Mueller ’15 (22-10)
• 170 – Brian Buser ’16 (37-4)
• 182 – Thomas Mooney ’16 (25-11)
• 195 – Jonathan Shaw ’15 (8-2)
• 220 – Nick Mosco ’17 (22-4)

Click here to follow the tournament online at trackwrestling.com.

Below is the schedule for Saturday: