Beast of the East is a meat grinder

Banged up at the Beast  - The Beast of the East Invitational wrestling tournament at the University of Delaware is a great privilege for a grappler to test himself against the best without paying the $68K per year it costs to board at Blair Academy in North Jersey or fork over the $44K in tuition for Delbarton Day School or the $38K it costs to attend Malvern Prep. But seriously, the Beast is a meat grinder with many teams leaving with a banged-up lineup; ironically, the better you do, the more matches you wrestle. Wrestling fans tend to look at wrestlers as rubberized Gumbys, but all those matches take a toll on the body. Cape had seven wrestlers win a total of 21 matches at the Beast over two days, but no one placed: Mikey Frederick, 145 pounds, 4-2;  Luke Bender, 152, 3-2; C.J. Fritchman, 160, 2-2; Carson Kammerer, 170, 3-2; Alex Taylor, 195, 4-2; Dalton Deevey, 220, 3-2; and Lucas Ruppert, 285, 3-2. Josh Negron, 182, of Sussex Central placed fourth, wrestling an incredible nine times and going 7-2. Negron lost 3-0 to eventual champion Kingsley Menifee and 1-0 to Josh Cordio of Nashoba Regional in the third-place match. Sussex Central freshman Malachi Stratton, 103,  went 4-2 for the tournament. Delaware wrestlers placing in the top eight were Gabe Giampietro of Smyrna, 120, second; Luke Poor of Caravel, 126, fifth; Justin Griffith of Sanford, 170, fourth; Josh Negron of Sussex Central, 182, fourth; Max Agresti of Salesianum, 195, second; James Miller of Salesianum 220, eighth. The top three team scores were Blair Academy 269, Delbarton 226 and Malvern Prep 213. Delaware's top team scores were Caravel Academy 79.5, Smyrna 55, Sussex Central 52, Salesianum 47, Cape Henlopen 46, Sanford 27, Caesar Rodney 22, St. Georges 17, and Milford 16. There were 123 teams in the competition. Cape returns to the mats Wednesday, Dec. 22, wrestling at Caravel.  

Bishop Loughlin Games - The Cape girls’ track team competed Sunday at the Ocean Breeze Track and Field Center on Staten Island, N.Y. Videos and text updates were flying around Sussex County all Sunday morning, leaving little time for church. Complete results will be in the Friday Cape Gazette running column written by multiple muppet disordered coach Tim Bamforth. Grace Wiggins placed 13th in the girls’ 300-meter dash for sophomores in 47.6 seconds. There were 89 runners in that field, but not all in the same heat. Cape won the girls’ 4-by-400 relay for sophomores in 4:27 with a team of Montana Jones, Landon Diehl, Grace Wiggins and Lainey Shockro. Shockro also pole vaulted 10-feet-4-inches to win the girls’ freshman/sophomore division and set a new Cape school record. Landon Diehl placed 14th in the girls’ 55-meter dash for sophomores in 8.24. There were 55 runners in that division. Katie Kuhlman set a school record in the 1,000-meter run with a time of 3:17.10,  placing 10th in the girls’ varsity field that had 78 entries. Lina Frederick, the only Cape freshman to compete in the meet, placed sixth (gets a medal) in the freshman 600 meters in a time of 1:53.6. There were 42 freshman runners in that category.  

Ursinus College Invitational - The Cape boys’ track team competed Saturday at the Ursinus College Invitational, which included teams from Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey. Complete results can be found at pa.milesplit.com. Konner Knarr placed ninth in the 200 meters in 24.4; Owen Daminger, 13th,  400 meters, 55.5; Brian Sponaugle, seventh, 800 meters, 2:09.5; freshman Cardin Benjamin, 12th, mile run, 5:02. The race of the day was the 3,000 meters, where Kenny Guy of Polytech, 9:02.59, held off Cape’s Ryan Baker, 9:02 6. Joey DeGregory of Cape was fifth in 9:38:09. Both the Cape boys’ and girls’ track teams are scheduled to compete at the Christopher Newport Showcase Saturday, Jan. 8.

Beleaguered Belugas - I looked into John Harbaugh's face Sunday before he made the decision to go for two and the win against Green Bay, just as he had done against Pittsburgh. I read his face before and after, and the expression didn’t change much. Sports are easy to analyze. Single decisions that don’t work are always wrong; it's a truism. Tom Brady getting shut down and shut down at home couldn't have made the haters happier unless it happened at his own home. But I saw the same beleaguered look, like, “I need to get out of here before someone breaks me.” 

Snippets - Caravel girls at Cape basketball is set for 6:15 p.m., Tuesday, Dec. 21. The JV game starts at 5 p.m. Resolution Day is just two weeks away; best to fatten up now, then decompress in January. Go on now, git!