On Friday and Saturday, Paint Branch held its first-ever wrestling tournament.  The event, the aptly named Panther Invitational Tournament – PIT, hosted 18 teams which included private-school teams as well as teams from Virginia, Montgomery County, and others schools in Maryland.

The gym setup had four mats of wrestling going on throughout the tournament.  After Christmas, high-school wrestlers receive an extra two-pound allowance for the rest of the season. A small group of wrestlers who had school the first day of the tournament were given an extra pound leeway. The extra pound seemed to have a significant impact on the tournament, as certain wrestlers had the ability to cut down to a different weight class than they were wrestling in prior to that tournament. Those 3 pounds made a big difference for Tomas Carlo of Rockville High School. Carlo, who had been wrestling 132 prior to the PIT tournament, only had to weigh 129 on Friday to drop to the 126-pound class, which allowed him to avoid a very competitive 132 bracket and place 1^st for the 126 weight class at PIT. Carlo defeated sophomore Panther Nolan Smith in the semifinals. Smith placed 4^th overall in the 126 weight class.

When the wrestling concluded on Friday, were 7 panthers (half the team) in the semi-finals. Also, the Panthers were in the team lead with 92 team points. Unfortunately for the Panthers, though, only three of the seven advanced to the finals.

Gibbs Tinne in the 195 class had not wrestled in a match before Friday, as he has been recovering from a hand injury which he suffered during football season. Tinne placed second in the 195 class after dropping a tough finals match in the 3^rd round of overtime.  Tinne, who finished top-8 last year in the state tournament hopes to place even higher this year.

Cornell Wilson, wrestling at 220, became his class’s PIT champion after wrestling confidently throughout the weekend. Wilson is definitely a postseason threat and is ranked second in the county and fifth in the state for 3A/4A.

Other Panthers who placed and helped the team to a third-place team finish included Junior 120-pounder Kevyn Cuyun (2^nd), 132-pounder Ryan Van Meers (3^rd), junior 145-pounder Donovan Paris (4^th), sophomore 170-pounder Abu Abdilah (4^th), and senior 182-pounder Rick Djeuhon (6^th).  The Panthers will compete in a tri-meet against Sherwood and Magruder this weekend to determine the division champ.