RALEIGH — Pushing itself to face off against the best competition possible, the Washington wrestling team took part in the 2018 WRAL Invitational this past weekend, finishing in eighth place among a field of 31 squads that included top wrestlers from across the state and Virginia.

Led by fourth-place finishes from Henry Jennings (145 lbs.) and Logan Nichols (220 lbs.) Washington scored 109 points, as Oscar Smith High School, a 6A school from Virginia, won first place. Also finishing among the top eight in their respective weight class to earn a spot on the podium were Mykel Warren (fifth/152 lbs.), Brodie Moore (eighth/120 lbs.) and Isaac Campbell (eighth/106 lbs.).

Washington head coach Chris Penhollow was overall pleased with how his team performed and said the purpose of competing in the two-day event was to push his wrestlers by having them face tough competition, which he told them heading to the tournament. For example, Jennings, who is 26-3 on the season so far, faced off against Bryce Sanderlin, a two-time state champion from Virginia, in the semifinals.

“I said, ‘This isn’t going to be like one of the tournaments we go to in the east. This is actually going to be harder than the state tournament,’” Penhollow said. “We always tell them, ‘You learn much more from a loss than you do beating up somebody that’s not a very good wrestler.’ So to get some tougher competition, we’ve got to shift a little further west of the state, or go where the tougher tournaments are to get ready for the end of the season.”

Even with the eighth-place finish, which is an improvement from the 24th place finish the Pam Pack had the last time it participated in the WRAL Invitational in 2016, Penhollow said his team should’ve done even better.

“We, realistically, should’ve been like fifth place,” Penhollow said. “I had three that lost the match that would’ve placed them in the top eight. Two of them had big leads.”

A mixture of allowing themselves to get caught and pinned, being disqualified for an illegal slam and just not wrestling to the best of their ability led some Pam Pack members from just missing out on the top eight and earning valuable points for Washington.

“I don’t know if it was the kids were just ready to be on Christmas break or whatever. Sometimes you just wrestle a little flat,” Penhollow said. “But I thought overall the kids did great.”

Coming up next for Washington is the Saleeby Dual Team Tournament, which the Pam Pack will host this Saturday. The competition won’t get easier for the Pam Pack, as it will most likely contend with Cary, the 2018 4A dual-team state champion and winningest wrestling program in the state with 21 state championships and 52 individual state champions, for the tournament title. For the last two years, the Saleeby tournament title came down to those two, with Cary coming out victorious both years.

“It’ll be tough,” Penhollow said. “I’ll spend this week trying to see if we can match up and hang with them and try to catch them. So, we’ll see.”