Cape wrestling goes 7-1 at Iron Horse Duals

Cape wrestling was one of 16 teams that competed at the Iron Horse Duals Jan. 4-5 at C. Milton Wright High School in Bel Air, Md. The competition was divided into two pools of eight teams each.

Cape finished 7-1 for the weekend, losing to Stephen Decatur 40-32 in the third-place match. The Vikings wrestled for third because a correctable and verifiable scoring error from a Friday match wasn’t discovered until Saturday, and the brackets had already been set.

Cape defeated C. Milton Wright 41-33, Leonardtown 35-34, Bishop Ireton 70-12, Hereford 52-21, South Carol 41-28, Boys Latin 78-10 and Oakdale 57-15.  

According to coach Chris Mattioni, Anthony Caruso, Jackson Handlin, Chris Handlin and Billy Ott all finished 8-0.

Eduardo Saez was 6-0, and Finbar Rishko and Juan Lares were 6-2.

“Overall, a great weekend of wrestling,” Mattioni said. “Some guys exceeded expectations, like Jackson, Juan and Fin. Jackson said it was the first time he was undefeated at a tournament.”

Freshman Jojo McLean (120) earned his first varsity victory and was 2-2 on the weekend. Lucas Ruppert also earned his first varsity win of the year, going 3-4.

Caruso passed Thomas Ott's win mark of 131 and now holds the Cape record with 132 career wins.

“Overall, it was a great experience. The kids wrestled well and the team bonded well together,” Mattioni said.  

Cape will wrestle Smyrna at home Wednesday, Jan. 9, for Teacher Appreciation Night.