Congrats to 4A Coach of the Year: Derek Manon!

[Legacy Wrestling credits the record-keeping and research of historians Jim Douglas and Rob Wolf. Douglas is a former 15-year coach at Whitman through 1995, and Wolf spent 17 years at Quince Orchard and completed his second year at Northwest.]

Walt Whitman coach Derek Manon’s fifth-ranked Vikings established a record-setting pace over the final month of this, his 19th season.

But Vikings did so only after experiencing adversity and sorrow in February in advance of winning their third straight Class 4A state dual meet championship.

"Our team persisted through the tough times to wrestle with grit and to wrestle for each other. The last month of the season was a roller coaster, but it ended with all of our boys and girls wrestling as hard as they could throughout the postseason,” Manon said. “I’d like to thank our team for wrestling through a memorable and record setting season. It’s cliché, but I never thought we’d experience a season like this, it was truly memorable. They were inspiring.”

The “inspired” Vikings wore pink tape on their shoelaces in memory of a female wrestler’s mid-week passing ahead of the state dual championships.

Passionate 25th-ranked senior Jacob Sherman (190) was among their 10 double-winners with a 29-second fall and a 24-9 technical fall, and they drilled both Richard Montgomery, 69-12, in the semifinals, and Crofton, 62-12, in the finals.

“I am not the kind of person to get emotional before my match,” said Sherman, who finished third and second in the Montgomery County and Class 4A-3A West tournaments. “But with all of the tragedies that have occurred this week with Coach Manon’s house and the passing of our teammate, Saturday night was special.”

The Vikings won their 35th and 36th consecutive dual meets to complete a record of 23-0, following that performance a week by earning their second straight Montgomery County Tournament championship.

As a result of the fire, Manon, his wife of nearly two decades, Sharon, their 14-year-old daughter, Makayla, and nine-year-old son, Jackson, was forced to briefly reside in a hotel.

“I feel like I could write a book about this season full of the highest of highs and horrific lows,” said Manon, one of Legacy Wrestling’s Coaches Of The Year. “The Whitman community and more specifically the wrestling community has been beyond amazing throughout the years, and particularly this year. I am blessed to be coaching where I am.”

The Vikings (256 points) overwhelmed county runner-up Sherwood (136.5) for that title by crowning six champions among nine finalists to go along with 11 wrestlers who finished within the top three of their weight classes.

The Vikings’ county champions were one short of the tournament standard established by John Ferguson-coached Damascus’ seven in 2015, but their nine finalists are believed to be a county record.

Also believed to be Class 4A-3A West Regional tournament records are the Vikings’ five champions among nine finalists.

The Vikings had three individual Class 4A-3A state champions and six finalists in that tournament. Their number of state finalists is a record for the Class 4A-3A tournament and is second overall only to South Carroll’s eight over in the 2023 Class 2A-1A event.

Ferguson’s Hornets have twice crowned a trio of state champions, once as Class 4A-3A tournament title-winners in 2017, and again in 2020 after the state tournament was no longer being scored.

Bowie of Prince George’s County crowned three state champions winning the Class AA-A state tournament in 1980, as did Paint Branch as runner-up that year to the Bulldogs. Laurel won the unified state title with three champions in 1971, as did Parkdale in 1974.

On the Class 2A-1A side, South Carroll (2023, 2024, 2025, 2026) crowned four state champions during each of four seasons, as did both tournament title-winners in Northern-Garrett (2000) and Southern-Garrett (2009).

Although the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association ceased scoring the state tournaments in 2018, Manon, assistant Will Sharbaugh and an associate calculated their Vikings as the unofficial champions with 169.5 points.

“Towards the end of this year’s states, Will and I and an alumni of ours, Ian Galt, had some time to calculate what would have been our team score at the state tournament,” said Manon, whose other assistant coaches are Ray Williams, Mitch Fenton and Max Sessions.

“If they still kept a team score at the individual state tournament we would have had 169.5 points. That would have been an all-time points record in the 4A/3A dating back to the first state tournament in 1970. When tournament scoring was kept, Northern Garrett had [standing record] 173 points to win the Class 2A-1A in 2000.”

Last year’s county tournament triumph had also occurred a week after the Vikings had secured their second straight Class 4A state dual meet crown with a single-season school record of 30-1. That title-winning effort, in turn, happened a season after the Vikings had gone 19-0 for their first-ever undefeated dual meet season.

Andy Wetzel coached Whitman from 1996 through 2007, and Manon spent a year as Wetzel’s assistant in 2005 when the Vikings earned Class 4A-3A state duals and tournament crowns.

Winning county, regional and state titles were top-ranked senior Andy Boshnick (285), third-ranked senior Solomon Randall (126) and fourth-ranked junior Jabasie Trice (120).

Randall ran his unbeaten record to 41-0 with 25 pins and seven technical falls on the way to earning his third straight county, regional and state crowns after having placed third in each as freshman.

Not only did Randall raise his unbeaten streak to 70 consecutive matches and his all-time school-record career victories mark to 163-7, but he became only the Vikings’ second-ever repeat state champion.

Trice ran his record on the year to 42-0 with 21 pins and 11 technical falls and is now a two-time county champion who has placed first and second at regions and was sixth at states as a sophomore. Boshnick (43-1, 30 pins) earned his first state title after having placed third at counties and fifth at regions last year.

Finishing second at states for the Vikings were sixth-ranked senior Zach Richards (215), fifth-ranked senior Matthew Hobbs (150) and 12th-ranked senior Christ Lindstrom (138), all of whom were county champions.

Lindstrom ended the year with a record of 44-2 with 23 pins and 11 technical falls, having finished first and second at counties, first and second at regions and second at states. Richards finished at 40-2 after being second at counties, first at regions and second at states, and

Hobbs, at 41-4, having placed first and third at counties, second twice at regions and second and sixth at states.

The Vikings also had a fifth-place state place winner in 20th-ranked senior Adan Magnas, who placed first and sixth at counties and second and sixth at regions.

Returning to next year’s Vikings along with Trice are 23rd-ranked junior Luke Monaco (165), sixth-ranked junior Noah Reising-Rubli (106) and sophomore Owen Sherman (113).

Monaco finished second in both counties and regions, Reising-Rubli was second in counties and fourth in regions, and Sherman was fifth in counties.

On the girls’ side, the Vikings were county runners-up to Quince Orchard, winner of the girls’ state tournament.

The Vikings’ fourth-ranked junior Kelani Ramos was first at counties at 105 pounds, and first at regions and fourth at states at 100 pounds. Fourth-ranked freshman Kohme Yamazaki (115) was third at counties, first at regions and fourth at states.

In addition, ninth-ranked junior Sydney Kantor was third at counties at 125 pounds, and third at regions at 120 pounds, whereas 16th-ranked sophomore Dorothy Velez (100/105) was third at counties at 100 pounds, and second at regions at 105 pounds.

There was also 16th-ranked sophomore Yoki Shiferaw being second at counties at 235, and second at regions at 190, freshman Giulia Bastos (130) finishing second at counties and fourth at regions, and sophomore Bella Boonurai (155) being third at counties.

Manon has a career dual meet record of 257-92, having coached the Vikings to four county tournament crowns, three regional tournament titles and six regional dual meet championships.

“We absolutely do not have the success we’ve had without Coach Sharbaugh on our coaching staff,” Manon said. “Throughout the season our team was full of 70-plus boys and girls who never wavered.”

Walt Whitman's Three-time State Champions

Eren Civan

Solomon Randall

Walt Whitman's nine Individual State Champions

2004 Eren Civan

2005 Eren Civan

2006 Eren Civan

2006 Will Sharbaugh

2024 Solomon Randall

2025 Solomon Randall

2026 Solomon Randall

2026 Jabasie Trice

2026 Andy Boshnick