Quince Orchard’s varsity grapplers hosted the Whitman Vikings in a match between two top 4A West contenders that could have big implications in the 4A West Region Championship standings. The Cougars won 8 of the 14 matched to move their record up to 4-1 on the season. The match started at the 220 lb weight class with Whitman getting off to a 9-0 start. QO would then go on a 24-0 tear with wins from their next four wrestlers. Freshman Jason Lebowitz (106 lb) earned six team points with a win by forfeit followed by three consecutive wins by fall from Junior Carlos Guerrero (113 lb), Sophomore Rico Cornejo (120 lb) and Junior Co-Captain Jose Echeona (126 lb). Senior Co-Captain Alejandro Lopez (145 lb) added another pin to the Cougars tally as did Sophomore Marquez Cooper (170 lb). Sophomore Ryan Jones’s (182 lb) 5-2 decision sealed the win for QO making the score 39-0. Junior Jay Bollinger (195 lb) put an exclamation point on the team win with a 2nd period fall. Final Score: QO 45 Whitman 30

In the first match of a tri-meet at Montgomery Blair High School, the Quince Orchard Cougar varsity wrestlers improved their early season record to 3-0 with a 48-24 win over the Wooton Patriots. The shorthanded Patriots forfeited four of the fourteen matches giving the Cougars a 24 point cushion. QO took five more wins in matches wrestled which included pins from Sophomore Rico Corenejo (113 lbs), Sophomore Ryan Jones (182 lbs) and Junior Jay Bollinger (195 lbs). Junior co-captain Jose Echeona (132 lbs) and Sophomore Jeffery Ruiz (285 lb) each added a win by decision. Seniors Alejandro Lopez (145 lb), Areyian Golchin (152 lbs), Sophomore Marquez Cooper (170 lbs) and Freshman Michael Monkevich (138 lbs) all earned wins by forfeit. Final Score: QO 48 Wootton 26

In the second match of the afternoon tri-meet, two undefeated teams, QO and Montgomery Blair, faced off in what would be a very close match. Both teams won 7 matches but the Blazers earned two more pins than the Cougars to squeeze out the victory. On the winning side for Quince Orchard were: Senior co-captain Alejandro Lopez (145 lb) with a 2nd period pin; Sophomores Marquez Cooper (170 lb), Ryan Jones (182 lb) and Junior Jay Bollinger (195 lb) with three consecutive point decisions; Sophomore Carlos Guerrero (113 lb) with a win by fall; Sophomore Rico Cornejo (120 lb) with a 4-0 decision and Junior co-captain Jose Echeona (132 lb) getting a first period pin. Final Score: QO 30 Blair 36

In front of a large and boisterous crowd at nearby Gaithersburg High School the Cougars upended the Trojans 54-22. The Cougars earned 7 wins by fall along with two decisions and a forfeit. Sophomore Rico Cornejo earned six quick team points to start off the night as Gaithersburg did not have an 120 lb opponent. Junior co-captain Jose Echeona finished off his Trojan opponent in 42 seconds with a win by fall. Freshman Michael Monkevich was in a back and forth match until he earned a pin in the 2nd period. Senior co-captain Alejandro Lopez made quick work of the Trojan’s 152 lb wrestler with a pin in 1 minute and 16 seconds. Sophomore 170 lber Marquez Cooper rallied from behind to take a lead before ended his opponent’s night in the third period with a pin. Sophomore Ryan Jones battled Gaithersburg’s182 lb wrestler and won in a 13-10 decision. Things started to get really exciting from there as Sophomore heavyweight Jeffrey Ruiz won another overtime match with a 5-4 win in the third period tiebreaker round. Freshman 106 lber was down 3-1 entering the 3rd period when he turned on the burners and put his Gaithersburg counterpart on his back for the pin and six Cougar points and Jason’s first varsity win. Sophomore Carlos Guerrero ended the night with a 2nd period pin to give the Cougar grapplers their final six team points. Final Score: QO 54 Gaithersburg 22

The varsity Cougars travelled to North Hagerstown High School to compete in the annual Armed Forces Dual Tournament on Friday for what was supposed to be a two day event with 8 private and public school teams from Maryland, DC and Virginia. The threat of snow and possible cancellation on Saturday forced an accelerated schedule so that QO wrestled 5 matches on Friday night and none on Saturday. The Cougar grapplers took 3 out of the 5 facing some of the top teams in the area. They started off the day with a 46-34 victory over Carroll County’s Century High School. DeMatha was the next team up and QO handled them easily, 48-21. Next up was the #3 ranked team in the DMV, Robinson High School of Fairfax, last season’s 2nd place finisher in the VA 6A with 3 returning state finalists. Robinson won 53-21 although 4 Cougars had impressive wins. Against North Hagerstown, one of Maryland’s top 4A teams over the past several years, Quince Orchard lost in a close one, 42-35. The Cougars capped off the day with a convincing 54-30 route of Georgetown Prep.
Co-captains Alejandro Lopez (Sr., 145 lb) and Jose Echeona (Jr., 126 lb) along with Jay Bollinger (Jr., 182 lbs) each won all five of their matches in dominant fashion. Rico Cornejo (So., 120 lbs) went 4-1 on the day which included getting a 3rd period takedown that sealed an exciting victory over North Hagerstown’s regional finalist from last season. Carlos Guerrero (Jr., 106/113 lbs) and Jeffrey Ruiz (So., 285 lbs) each had 3 wins on the day. Jeffrey had one of the most exciting matches when he won with an escape during the ultimate ride out period after the match was tied 3-3 at the end of overtime. Just back into the wrestling room after playing in the football state finals last week were Marquez Cooper (So., 170 lb), Ryan Jones (So, 195 lbs) and Thomas DeCastro (So., 220 lbs). Marquez won each of the two matches he wrestled by fall. Ryan had two wins by fall as well and lost to the nation’s #1 ranked 182 lb wrestler, Aaron Brooks from North Hagerstown who is 3 time MD state champion as well as the 2017 World Junior Freestyle champion. Ben Rosenbloom (So, 220 lbs) also notched two wins for the Cougars. Jason Lebowitz (Fr., 106 lbs), Danny Sinno (So., 132/138 lbs), Michael Monkevich (Fr., 132/138 lbs), Mehir Uddin (Sr., 152/160 lbs), Nick Shen (Sr., 152/160 lbs) and Konstantine Kahadze (So., 170 lbs) all notched victories for QO.

Quince Orchard’s varsity grapplers opened up the 2017-18 season with a 74-6 win over the Gladiators from Northwood. Sophomore Danny Sinno (132 lbs) and Freshman Michael Monkevich (138 lbs) got the Cougars and their respective high school careers to a great start, both winning by first period falls. Senior co-captain Alejandro Lopez (145 lbs) racked up 20 points to his opponent’s 5 to earn a five point technical fall. After Senior Mehir Uddin accepted a win by forfeit in the 152 lb weight class, Seniors Nick Shen and Quinten Nguyen each earned six team points with firs period pins. In the 182 lb weight class, Sophomore Ryan Jones got his first win as a Cougar with a first period pin. Junior Jay Bollinger also ended his match in less than two minutes with a win by fall. Sophomore heavyweight Jeffery Ruiz jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the 3rd period before ending the match with a pin. Northwood did not have either a 106 or 113 lber which gave wins by forfeit to 
Junior Carlos Guerrero and Freshman Roman Mychajlom. Sophomore Rico Cornejo beat Northwood’s best wrestler by a 4-1 decision. Junior co-captain Jose Echeona capped off the win for the Cougars by pinning his Northwood opponent in 1 minute and 18 seconds.  Final Score: QO 74 Northwood 6

2015-16 Season Highlights