Photos by Jim Marczesky The Cardinal Newman Cardinals 2008- 2009 SCISA 3A state champions! Coaches: Head Coach Eric Goff, Assistants Brian Dunphy and David Peacock. Starting Wrestlers: 103- Cole McCarter, 112- Hunter Richardson, 119- Thomas Touma/Nathan Smith, 125- Conor Egan, 130- Alexander Geurin, 135- Talley Lattimore, 140- Chris Palevich/ Richard Hodaly/ Nick Palevich, 145- Thomas Winstead, 152- Joey DeAngelis, 160- Adam Touma/ Charles Ray, 171- John Bolchoz/ Johnie Hodge, 189- James Williams/ Will Rainwater, 215- Jack Garrick/ Rush Tompkins, and 285- Greg Regan. Others on the team include Michael Hodaly, Bobby Brady, Adam Ritter, Danny Winterstein, Taylor Patten, Mitchell Pennington, Danny Maroney, Patrick Owens, Seth Heckart, Matt Wilson, Clayton Segars, Sean Nottoli, Chandler Kohn, Taylor Gardner, Billy Solomon, Nathan Hayes, Kyle Early, Cody Humbertson, Jake Wilson, Craig Clyburn, Ben Kubas, Hollis Carrouth, Carl Joiner, Michael Hanna, Adam Baumgardner, and Louis Williams. Cardinal Newman defeated Hammond 51- 21 on Saturday, January 31 to win its first team title at the SCISA Dual Wrestling Championships.

Cardinal Newman was the host of the semifinals and finals this year. The Cardinals were also the number one seed, and in the semifinals they proved it, defeating St. Joseph's by a count of 72- 6. Meanwhile, Hammond, the two seed, eked out a 42- 35 win over Heathwood Hall.

In the finals, Cole McCarter won a 9- 2 decision at 103 to give the Cardinals an early 3- 0 lead. But Hammond, the four- time defending state champions, were not going to go down easily, even though they lost four seniors from last year's squad.

Matthew Kay won an 8- 4 decision at 112 to tie the score, and Stephen Mitchell pinned his opponent at 119 to give the Skyhawks a 9- 3 lead. Conor Egan came back with a third- period pin for the Cardinals at 125, and Alex Guerin, avenging an earlier defeat, pinned Guy Castles in the third period at 130 to give Cardinal Newman a 15- 9 lead. After Talley Lattimore scored a pin at 135 and Bradford McGillivary countered with a pin at 140, Cardinal Newman held a 21- 15 lead.

At 189, CN's James Williams wins the final match 11- 4 against Hammond's Joseph MacDougall. Then came a very contentious bout. Thomas Winstead went to the mat with Reb Boyd, who had been disqualified due to a flagrant foul when these two met in January. In this rematch, Winstead had the upper hand for most of the first period, but Boyd rolled Winstead over before Winstead countered. But in that brief moment, the referee saw that Winstead's shoulders both touched the mat at the same time and called a pin. Both wrestlers went toward the referee, thinking each had been pinned, but Winstead was called for gross misconduct and was ejected, which not only gave Hammond the six points for the pin, but also deducted three points from Cardinal Newman's score. All of a sudden, the Skyhawks went from 21- 15 down to 21- 18 up.

However, those would be the last points Hammond would score. Adam Touma, Joey DeAngelis, and John Bolchoz all had first- period pins in their matches, with DeAngelis taking only 12 seconds to score his. Then James Williams won an 11- 4 decision at 189, and with the Cardinals winning the top two weight classes by forfeit, they took home the trophy with the 51- 21 final.

Both teams will be in action Saturday, February 7 at Heathwood Hall for the SCISA Individual Wrestling Championships.