Smyrna’s Cole Sebastianelli (top) controls Indian River’s Jared Arlett on his way to the 126-pound title at the Eagle Classic last Saturday at Smyrna High,
Every wrestling match in Smyrna is an event, but last Wednesday’s 66-3 victory over Sussex Tech was extra special.
It was the 600th dual-meet win in the history of the Smyrna wrestling program. The Eagles have been churning out victories since 1961, and they have a list of almost all of them.
“There’s only one match we don’t know what the score was, back in 1961,” Smyrna coach Kurt Howell said. “There was one dual meet, I think it was with Harrington. But other than that, we have every match on record.”
Howell credited the Smyrna Little Wrestlers program, which schools kids in the fundamentals from an early age. And the number of intense fans at the high school matches can often intimidate opponents. Howell, a four-time state champion at Newark from 1983-86, experienced that first-hand.
“I remember coming to a high school dual meet down here when I was at Newark, and I ran out and there were people that knew my name and were screaming at me, ‘Go home, Kurt!,” he said. “I had never seen that before.”
The Eagles have so much tradition, some people wonder just how early it starts.
“I was talking to a young lady from Cape, and she said, ‘You guys in Smyrna, does every baby get a singlet?’” Howell said with a laugh. “I said, ‘Yeah, that’s what we do.’ We go to Kent General, and we walk in the maternity ward and say, ‘Is that a Smyrna baby? Here’s your headgear, and here’s your singlet.’”
Smyrna will celebrate the 600th win before Friday’s 7 p.m. home dual meet against Cape Henlopen. All wrestling alumni and former coaches are invited to participate.
Colonials toughening up
William Penn girls basketball coach Neil Webster wasn’t discouraged after his team lost 54-40 to second-ranked Sanford last week. He took it as a step forward after the Colonials played evenly with the Warriors in the second half.
“Our goal this year was to upgrade our schedule,” Webster said. “So we dropped five teams that we beat last year. One of the teams we picked up was Sanford. … We feel if we’re going to be a top-rated team, we have to play good teams.”
Sixth-ranked William Penn (7-2, 4-0 Blue Hen Flight A) still has games remaining against No. 8 Hodgson and No. 5 St. Elizabeth, plus a conference showdown with No. 3 Concord and a trip to Bishop Eustace in Pennsauken, N.J., for a meeting with Lenape of Medford, N.J., on Jan. 30.
Raiders get challenged
Speaking of tough schedules, nobody had it tougher than the Ursuline basketball team last week. The defending DIAA champion Raiders (7-4), Delaware’s top-ranked team, handed Cardinal O’Hara (Pa.) – which is ranked 14th nationally by USA Today – its first loss with a 35-34 road win last Thursday. Maggie Connolly led the Raiders with nine points.
Ursuline faced an even tougher opponent on Sunday. The Raiders lost 52-37 at Neumann-Goretti (Pa.), which is undefeated, ranked fifth nationally and won the national bracket at the 25th annual Diamond State Classic at St. Elizabeth last month.
The Raiders have faced just three in-state opponents so far, and have won those games by an average of 28 points per game.
Rounding it up
— The Charter of Wilmington wrestling team scored a huge victory with a 33-30 win over perennial Flight A power William Penn last Friday. Jaeah Yoo, Carter Lamey and Andrew Genett scored pins for the Force.
— Salesianum set a state record in winning the distance medley relay last Friday at the Yale Track Classic in New Haven, Conn. The Sals’ John Walker (3:12.6 for 1,200 meters), Colin Parker (53.8 seconds for 400), George Steinhoff (2:00 for 800) and Andrew Hally (4:19 for 1,600) finished in 10:24.62, the second-fastest time nationally this season.
Charter of Wilmington finished third in the same race in 10:32.95, the fourth-best Delaware time ever. The Force’s Kevin Murray also ran the 3,000 meters in 8:54.39, which also ranks fourth in the state all-time.
— Tickets for Friday night’s St. Mark’s at Salesianum basketball game will be sold in advance only at both schools beginning Wednesday. All tickets are $3, and no tickets will be sold at the door.
— A.I. du Pont is seeking a head coach for boys tennis and assistant coaches for boys lacrosse and boys and girls track. Send resumes to athletic director Mark Alley at mark.alley@redclay.k12.de.us by noon Friday.
Contact Brad Myers at bmyers@delawareonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @BradMyersTNJ