Just recently, incredible history was made at Roanoke College. Junior Mark Samuel from Noke’s wrestling team won the NCAA Division III wrestling championship in the 141 pound category. It was a long and hard uphill battle, for to get there he had to compete in three matches the day before on Friday, March 14th. He managed to win all three of them that day, solidifying his title of All-American honors for the second season in a row. He competed alongside four other Maroon athletes in nationals, those being sophomore Vincenzo Corvetto, freshman Jonah Paulino, sophomore Xavier Preston, and junior Isiac Paulino.
These men also managed to pull off impressive results, such as Jonah Paulino winning against Caden Frost from New England College with an 11-0 score, then proceeded to surpass Brody Toledo from Wisconsin Oshkosh with a final score of 16-3. His older brother Isiac Paulino also stepped it up, dominating in his match against an opponent from Olivet by pinning him down in the second round at 2:36. Vincenzo Corvetto succeeded in dominating his first match, however unfortunately lost his second. Same case occurred with Xavier Preston, winning 7-5 at the wrestleback round but losing the next.
On Saturday, March 15th, Mark Samuel would send the whole division into an uproar. The final rivalry was between him and Sean Conway from the University of Chicago. Although Mark didn’t score any points in the first period, he was determined to push through. He slowly began to rack up points until finally, with 23 seconds left on the clock, ended the match in a 9-3 win through an iconic takedown. We are incredibly proud of Mark for this astounding achievement, and can’t wait to see more from him in the future! Here we go, Maroons!
Zachary Bayers
Section Editor
