Multiple MTA Students Win Big at the Wittenberg Wrestling Tournament

by Zachary Gurwitz (’18)

Last weekend, the MTA wrestling team competed in biggest Jewish high school wrestling tournament in the United States: the Henry Wittenberg Invitational. Representatives of fifteen yeshivos from across the country came together on Presidents’ Weekend to duke it out over two long days of wrestling.

On Friday, the preliminary matches got underway, with four mats being rolled out and the lighter wrestlers getting in one or two matches before breaking for Shabbos. After a refreshing day of rest, the matches resumed on Sunday with the same level of excitement as when they left off. After a few more hours of combat, the two hundred wrestlers stopped their fighting and davened mincha together before going back for the final matches of the event. First, the 3rd and 5th matches were fought, followed by the clearing of three mats, leaving one in the center under a bright spotlight with everyone else in darkness, watching the best people fight it out to be the best of their weight.

The MTA team, though slightly handicapped due to injuries, managed to get six place finishers: Avi Dier (’18) and Zachary Gurwitz (’18) placed 5th, Noah Dure (’18) placed 3rd, Abie Veroba (’18) finished in 2nd, and Alex Knapp (’17) and Izzy Frasco (’17) were the champions of their respective weight classes. Despite many well fought matches, the team placed 7th overall and scored 102 team points. With only three members set to graduate from the team this year, look out for a more experienced MTA team to come back with a vengeance next year.