The Irish Choose Quality Over Quantity at Fife Tournament

The O'Dea Fighting Irish varsity wrestling team made the drive down to the 2022 Lads and Lasses tournament hosted by Fife High School. The team took second place and many wrestlers finished 1st, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Many other great teams made the drive to Fife as well, including Lincoln (Tacoma), Auburn, Washington, Kent-Meridian, Orting and Fife. These teams opposed a great challenge to the Irish. The Irish came ready for the fight with their main varsity guys, Connor Richardson, Rogan Bruce, John Haralson, Georgios Kotsakis, Anthony Tish, Mason Flaat, John Orm, Jack Lopriore and Peter Pauly. The team had been preparing for this tournament all week and were excited to get to work. "We have been pushing each other all week and weeks before to prepare for these weekend tournaments," said senior wrestler Kotsakis. The night started of strong with first round wins from most of the wrestlers and close matches from the other wrestlers. Those other wrestlers who lost their first match would not let their night be over that fast. They fought hard and most were able to make it to the third place matches and fifth place matches. Pauly, Orm, and Tish would take third place. Richardson and Flaat would take fourth place. Lopriore and Bruce would take fifth place. The Irish had two finalist at the tournament, Kotsakis and Haralson. They would take advantage of the opportunity presented to them and take first place. "It was a great tournament to work on your skills and being able to take first place was an added bonus," said Kotsakis. The Irish being able to fill out all of the weight class with strong and skilled wrestlers proved to be very important. Even though the team didn't have as many wrestlers as other teams, they were still able to take second place at the Fife tournament. The team proved that having quality over quantity was a good thing.