Entering his third season at the helm of the program he once competed in as a student, Craig Janjigian is living the dream. A wrestler for Belmont teams since he was in fifth grade, Janjigian was a varsity wrestler all four years while at Belmont High School, serving as a captain during his senior year in 2013.
Ever since he graduated from Belmont, he knew he wanted to return as a coach, and eight years later, he accomplished that goal. After taking the reins of a program on the upswing and coaching an individual state champion among three state qualifiers last season, Janjigian believes his squad is ready to reach new heights.
“We’ve always been excelling on an individual level,” Janjigian said. “But there are teams out there that absolutely dominate on a team level. I think that’s a cool thing. … I want to kind of round those edges, that sort of thing. I want to make sure that we’re good on both fronts.”
Leading the way for Belmont are the four captains: seniors Luke Coelho (138 lbs) and Ryan Murphy (157 lbs) and juniors Will Babcock (150 lbs) and Ava Svistunov (106 lbs).
Svistunov is the aforementioned individual state champion. In the first-ever Girls Division 1 State Tournament last season, she came out on top in her weight class as a sophomore. After spending the entire offseason training, Svistunov is excited to be back.
“I’m really excited to see how far I go this year, see if I could make it as far as I did last year,” Svistunov said.
Out of their entire schedule, the Marauders are looking forward most to the Brendan Grant Tournament, hosted by Belmont every year.
The tournament is named in honor of Grant, a varsity player in football, baseball and wrestling at Belmont before graduating in the Class of 2000. After starting in his first baseball season at American International College in 2001, Grant played summer league baseball. In a game on Belmont High School’s field on June 27, 2001, Grant collided with a teammate and died from his injuries the next day.
The wrestling tournament is among other local events carrying on his name. This year’s edition — taking place from Jan. 4-5 — will be the biggest one yet. With four divisions — varsity, junior varsity, girls and youth — and “over 1,000 people in the building,” Janjigian estimates, it will allow Belmont’s wrestlers to compete on a bigger stage in a familiar environment.
“It’s the tournament that we host, so I think that’s always fun,” Coelho said, “We got a lot of people from school here, helping out, volunteering, and it’s a great tournament.”
Aside from tournaments, Janjigian is hoping his team wins three or four of their eight dual meets, and with around 75% of the 47-member roster made up of returners, the experience and sheer numbers should work in the Marauders’ favor to not only fill out a full varsity lineup consisting of 14 weight classes but to field a competitive one as well.
“A lot of our weight classes, we’ve had a lot of forfeits before and maybe lost that way,” Murphy said. “But [this year] a lot of our weight classes are very deep in numbers, so I think we can be able to show how good we are.”
