WUDL hasn’t been all together since the season opener. We were reminded why – we don’t fit in most buildings, but national qualifiers are different, bringing the whole family together once again. 

We will cover our MS and HS National Qualifiers in a separate post, but are excited to celebrate everyone else who competed across the weekend.  

First of all, a big shout out to Principal Strother and the host team at Kettering. They stepped up in a big way when our original host cancelled on us, and welcomed us to their school. The first MD tournament post COVID couldn’t have been smoother. 

JV: 

KIPP College Prep took a while to get on the field, but they’ve made themselves right at home. Led by Rhorie-McDowney, they took 1st place in JV in their 2nd tournament! 

Kettering, with two teams in the qualifier, didn’t stop there, with Chongwa / Ashime also going undefeated and finishing 2nd. Eastern High School’s Morin took a similar path as KIPP DC College Prep to 3rd place, while Bacote / Wilson (Douglas) and Yeakey / Black (Banneker) round out the top 5. 

Shout out to Jacobs (Redlands) winning a trophy in their first JV tournament! 

Novice: 

Kettering had a good day with multiple qualifiers, but the good times didn’t end in Novice either. Uma / Frazier got 4th place, while Itauma / Ikemetuna finished 6th and Hawkins / Omole finished 15th. 

Francis Hammond may not have had a lot of teams quite ready for Nat Quals, but they sure were ready to advance. Yassin / Averyna finished 1st, while Chowdhury / Sola finished 3rd. 

Pierson / Glasier (Hobson), Kemcha / Olanipekun (DuVal), McCoy / Sokolov (Hobson), Smith (Douglas,), and De Luce / Macahig (Hardy) round out the top 10. 

Shout out to Mervo’s Jackson / Ellliot for getting their team’s 2nd team award and to Elliot for their school’s 1st speaker award in more than a decade. 

Rookie:

Let me know if you’ve heard this one before….the home team, Kettering, showed up! Igunkoya / Nwamara took 1st place, while Singh/Singh finished 7th, Edmond/ Adeptu in 8th. 

Last tournament’s break out stars from Hyattsville also made their presence known, with Ferreira / Dixon-Reddie in 2nd, Gonzalez / Chesney in 3rd, Clem / Miller in 5th, and Nokam / Perry in 10th. 

Also winning trophies: Lin / Toldson (Hobson), and Zeldes / Jain – Dewitt (Hardy) and Washington / Rahmani (Francis Hammond)