Albert Einstein High School

Home → Sports  → Wrestling

Wrestling

Head Coach Adrian Baez
E-mail: Adrian Baez 

News

Wrestlers Take Einstein to State Championship Tournament

   Two Titan wrestlers overcame regional tourney losses to win berths in the March 6-7 state wrestling tournament, becoming the first Einstein wrestlers since 2006 to reach the top Maryland competition.
   Seniors Tommy Wilson (112 lbs.) and Ricky Echeona (140 lbs.) each took third place in their weight classes at the regional competition at Sherwood High School Feb. 27-28, with both Wilson and Echeona going 3-1 in their matches. They'll be on the mats again Fri., March 6 in Cole Field House at the University of Maryland College Park campus. They'll face wrestlers from Division 4A/3A schools to determine who will become state champions. Start time for the first day of the state tourney is 2:30 p.m.
   Wilson, with 20 victories this season, is currently is ranked 30th in the state in his weight class.Echeona, who's attained 30 regular season wins, is ranked 26th in Maryland in his weight class.
   "It's like, wow, we're going to states! We're ecstatic," said Coach Adrian Baez, who has led the team along with Coach Larry Hill for the last three years.
   Besides Wilson and Echeona, Einstein sent seniors Chris Byars and Alec Anderson to February's regional tournament. Byars (145 lbs.) finished in sixth place at the double elimination event with a season record of 28 wins and 11 loses. Anderson (161 lbs.) also did not advance beyond regionals, and finished with a record of 24 wins and 12 losses.
   Einstein placed 11th of 21 Montgomery schools at the regional competition. Watkins Mill wrestling coach Tim Lowe, an Einstein alumnus and state wrestling champ during his years as a Titan, was an award presenter at the event.
   For Wilson and Echeona, the trip to Cole Field House is the capstone of their high school wrestling careers. Wilson amassed 70 wins over the years and finished 7th in regionals in 2008. After an initial win at the recent regional tourney, he lost to a Magruder High School wrestler, then found himself facing another tough opponent from Springbrook High School.
   "It pushed me more," Wilson said. "It focused me more on what I needed to do to win the match." Wilson won that match and then another  against a Walt Whitman wrestler.
   "I want to go out with a bang," Wilson said of his upcoming state competition. "I'm ready."
   Echeona didn't wrestle his junior year after suffering an injury playing football. The Sherwood competition marked his first regional tourney, and he started with a win. But then he lost to a top-ranked wrestler from Quince Orchard, and next faced a Bethesda-Chevy Chase  opponent who had beaten him a week earlier at the county tournament.
   "I went in, knowing I had to put him on his back in the first period," Echeona said. "I had to dig deep inside and know I really wanted it." Echeona won by decision, then won a third time against a Springbrook opponent.
   "You have to be tough to wrestle -- the physicality of it, the mentality of it," he said. "It gives you a sense of confidence that no other sport can."
   Where the confidence of Einstein's wrestlers will take them at the state tournament is a work in progress, the culmination of an intense season that stretches over four months.
   "All bets are off when you go to state," said Baez. "We're getting hungry here."

To learn more about the state wrestling championship, click here to go to the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association website.

Pictured below are (top row) Coaches Adrian Baez (left) and Larry Hill (right) and (bottom row, left to right) wrestlers Tommy Wilson, Ricky Echeona and Chris Byars.  

Varsity Roster

JV Roster

Schedule