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The St. Joseph’s Knights Wrestling Team has been busy over the last few weeks as their regular season winded down. The team took on North Carolina rival, Asheville School, in a home-and-home series, and competed in the SCISA (South Carolina Independent Schools Association) State Dual Team Competition. Along with the team’s championship goals, several of the Knights’ wrestlers are preparing for the individual state championships, and breaking St. Joseph’s school records along the way.
"It’s been a busy eight days," St. Joseph’s Head Wrestling Coach, Jason Smith said. "We’ve been lucky to get the opportunity to get some good matches in before the State Tournament. We’ve got some kinks to workout and skills to refine."
In the Knights’ last regular-season home dual meet, the Blues from Asheville School traveled to Greenville. The contest was competitive as the two schools were evenly matched. But, even after the hard fought battle, the Knights fell 48-30. There were plenty of highlights for the St. Joseph grapplers as Joey Schosky (103 lb.), Michael McCall (125 lb.), Ahmad Dbouk (145 lb.), Clark Burgess (152 lb.), and Steven Fowler (160 lb.) all picked up wins for the Knights.
Knights’ sophomore Clark Burgess said after the match, "We had a lot of fans here tonight. I’m glad we performed well, and got some big wins. Our seniors deserve it."
A couple of nights later, St. Joseph’s hosted a first round dual meet of the SCISA State Championships. The #5 seeded Ben Lippen School of Columbia traveled to Greenville to take on the #4 seeded Knights. The two evenly matched squads went back and forth the whole meet with the Knights slowly pulling through to claim the victory, 54-30.
Coach Smith said, "Our upper-weights really came up big for us tonight. We needed Will (Dameron) and Danny (Collins) to win so we could secure the victory, and they both came through, big time."
"Coach came up to us about halfway through the match," Dameron said. "He said one of us needed to be a hero, and we needed to do it for the team."
Also claiming victory for the Knights were Schosky, Noah Davis (112 lb.), McCall, Michael Kiser (135 lb.), Alex Burnikel (140 lb.), Dbouk, and Fowler.
After the victory over Ben Lippen, the Knights moved on to the State Semi-finals where they faced-off against the #1 seed, Cardinal-Newman School. Although prepared, the Knights did not have enough fire power, and fell by of score of 72-7. Cardinal-Newman moved on later that day to defeat Hammond School, and claimed the title of SCISA State Champions. Against Cardinal-Newman, only two St. Joseph’s wrestlers claimed victory: Dbouk and Fowler. Fowler won his match in dominating fashion, winning by a score of 11-4. In an equally impressive effort, Dbouk won his match, 9-0, a major victory. The win was Dbouk 20th on the season, making him the first ever St. Joseph’s wrestler to claim at least 20 victories in a single season.
The Knights then moved on to have a rematch with #3, Heathwood Hall School, for 3rd place in the state. The match turned out to be just as exciting as the first, but with the same outcome. The Knights fell, 48-27, but not without some highlights of their own. Along with victories by Kiser, Dbouk, Fowler, and Dameron, the biggest win of the meet was from up-and-comer Burgess. Wrestling in the 145 lb. weight class, Burgess claimed victory over the Heathwood Hall wrestler, 6-1.
"It was Clarks biggest victory ever." Coach Smith said, "He wrestled flawlessly for six minutes. He kept us in the match, and gave us a chance for a trophy. He did everything I asked."
After the SCISA Dual Championships, the Knights set up one more tune-up match before the Individual State Championships: A rematch with Asheville School, in North Carolina. Although the Knights were prepared for the upset, they once again fell short, 48-29. Securing victories for the Knights were Nadir Dbouk (103 lb.), McCall, Burnikel, Ahmad Dbouk, and Fowler. For Steven Fowler, the victory was his 20th of the season, making him the second St. Joseph’s athlete to accomplish the feat, and bringing his overall record to 20-5 with 14 pins. While his little brother Nadir was getting his first ever varsity win, Ahmad Dbouk quietly brought is record up to 22-2 (11 pins), which includes 19 straight victories heading into the Individual State Championships.
Coach Smith summarized, "I’ve had the distinct pleasure to coach Ahmad (Dbouk), Steven (Fowler), and Danny (Collins) for three years now. Each is an incredibly well rounded individual, and I cannot say enough good things. I will miss them terribly next year."
