Washington

Washington Township knocks off No. 3 Kingsway, but Minutemen aren’t satisfied

Published

2 years ago

January 10, 2024

Washington Township knocks off No. 3 Kingsway, but Minutemen aren’t satisfied

WASHINGTON TWP. – Knocking off the No. 3-ranked team in South Jersey would have sent shockwaves through the stands for the Washington Township High School wrestling team in most years.

Not Wednesday.

Instead, the Minutemen kept their celebration pretty low key for the achievement. And head coach Eric Ring certainly noticed.

“I was pretty excited how the guys reacted afterwards, they didn’t act like they had just won the Super Bowl,” Ring said. “They know there’s more to it now. It’s a fun dual meet, but as we saw last year, things can change come playoff time.”

More: Two new teams wrestle their way into the latest South Jersey Mean 15 rankings for Jan. 9

Sixth-ranked Washington Township won seven bouts, including a pair of pins and two more with one-point decisions, en route to a 31-27 victory over previously unbeaten Kingsway in a Tri-County Conference Royal Division meet.

If the scenario sounds familiar to the Minutemen, it’s because they’ve traveled the same territory before. Washington Township delivered a 38-32 statement win over Kingsway last winter, but suffered a 39-22 setback against Kingsway in the South Jersey Group 5 playoffs.

Sophomore Colton Hagerty said Wednesday’s victory felt good, but there’re a bigger goal in a few weeks.

“There’s more things we have to take care of this year,” Hagerty said. “We have more plans for the postseason. We will likely have to beat them again. We want to make it to (defending sectional champion) Southern this year.”

What it means

There’s a very good possibility that the two squads meet again when the team tournament begins on Feb. 5.

Ring knows things can change over the course of four weeks, but he’s thinks the Minutemen (5-0) will be focused on the challenge ahead.

“We’re a different team this year,” Ring said. “We were very senior-driven last year. But from the start of this season to now, we’ve definitely made some gains and that’s the plan, just to get better every day.

“I really liked our effort (Wednesday). We won some of those 50-50 situations when it comes down to grit.”

Kingsway (5-1) appeared to take the loss in stride. The Dragons know better days are ahead.

“We’re disappointed, we don’t like losing this one, but knowing there’s a high likelihood that we’ll see them again, it takes a little of the sting out of the loss,” Kingsway head coach Mike Barikian said.

Kingsway will certainly be a different team in a few weeks.

The Dragons are expected to welcome back senior Luke Van Brill at this weekend’s Buc Classic. A district champ and fifth-place finisher at Region 8 last year, Van Brill had to sit 30 days following his transfer back to Kingsway. He played football during the fall at Roman Catholic in Philadelphia.

Senior Nathan Taylor is working his way back from an ACL injury. The three-time district and three-time region champion should be in the lineup when the Dragons line up against Delsea on Jan. 24.

“Nate’s in the room Nate working out and looks pretty good right now,” Barikian said.

Meet notes

Township’s Michael Horn delivered a clutch pin at 138, putting the Minutemen in prime position to lock up the meet.

Senior Jackson Hoopes rolled his right ankle during his bout at 150, but fought through the injury for a 6-5 decision over Sean Kirwin to clinch the win for the Minutemen.

Township freshman Gabe Palaganas won for the third time in his last four bouts with a 6-3 decision at 190 while Kingsway freshman Aston Ford scored a late takedown at 126 for a victory.

Kingsway’s Joe Leone, who weighed in at 175, bumped all the way up to 215 and earned an impressive 11-5 decision. The junior was down 4-0 after the first period before battling back.

The Results

Washington Township 31, Kingsway 27

165: Ben Dryden, K, p. Jacob Gledhill, 4:26; 175: Cole DeNick, K, tech. fall Piotr Bochenski, 19-4, 5:46; 190: Gabe Palaganas, WT, d. Cristian Davis, 6-3; 215: Joe Leone, K, d. Andrew Osborn, 11-5; 285: Mitchell Lando, WT, d. John McEntee, 2-1; 106: Dylan Hetzel, WT, forfeit; 113: Colton Hagerty, WT, md. Jason Meola, 14-3; 120: Christian Hoopes, WT, p. Tyler Capra, 4:35; 126: Ashton Ford, K, d. Mark Simmons, 6-4; 132: Ramon Alfonso Arroyo, md. Aiden Hardy, 12-1; 138: Michael Horn, WT, p. Nicholas Markizon, 3:24; 144: Tommy DiPietro, K, md. Chaz Melton, 10-0; 150: Jackson Hoopes, WT, d. Sean Kirwin, 6-5; 157: Chase Helder, K, d. Raymond McFall, 7-3.

Tom McGurk is a regional sports reporter for the Courier-Post, The Daily Journal and Burlington County Times, covering South Jersey sports for over 30 years. If you have a sports story that needs to be told, contact him at (856) 486-2420 or email tmcgurk@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @McGurkSports. Help support local journalism with a digital subscription.

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Washington

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Published

1 day ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury announces she’s pregnant

Washington Spirit goalkeeper Aubrey Kingsbury has announced that she and her husband Matt are expecting a baby in July.

The couple made the announcement in a video on the Spirit’s social media channels, holding a baby goalkeeper jersey on the pitch at Audi Field.

Kingsbury becomes the most recent Spirit star to go on maternity leave, following defender Casey Krueger, midfielder Andi Sullivan and forward Ashley Hatch.

Sullivan gave birth to daughter Millie in July, while Hatch welcomed her son Leo in January.

Krueger announced she was pregnant with her second child in October.

Kingsbury has served as the Spirit’s starting goalkeeper since 2018, and has been named the NWSL Goalkeeper of the Year twice (2019 and 2021).

The 34-year-old has two caps with the U.S. women’s national team, and was named to the 2023 World Cup roster.

The club captain will leave a major void for the Spirit, who have finished as NWSL runner-up in back-to-back seasons.

Sandy MacIver and Kaylie Collins are expected to compete for the starting role while Kingsbury is on maternity leave.

The Spirit kick off their 2026 campaign on March 13 against the Portland Thorns.

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Washington

Washington state board awards Yakima $985,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

Published

2 days ago

February 26, 2026

Press Room

Washington state board awards Yakima 5,600 loan for Sixth Avenue project design

YAKIMA, Wash. — Yakima could soon take a major step toward redesigning Sixth Avenue after the Washington State Public Works Board awarded the city a $985,600 loan.

The loan was approved for the design engineering phase of the Sixth Avenue project. The funding can also be used along Sixth Avenue for utility replacement and updated ADA use.

The Yakima City Council must decide whether to accept the award. If the council accepts it, the city’s engineering work will move forward with the design of Sixth Avenue.

The cost of installing trolley lines is excluded from the plan. The historic trolleys would need to raise the funds required to add trolley lines.

The award is scheduled to be discussed during next week’s City Council meeting.

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Washington

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Published

2 days ago

February 25, 2026

Press Room

Microsoft promises more AI investments at University of Washington

Microsoft will ramp up its investment in the University of Washington.

Brad Smith, the company’s president, made the announcement at a press conference with University of Washington President Robert Jones on Tuesday.

That means hiring more UW graduates as interns at Microsoft, he said.

And he said all students, faculty, and researchers should have access to free, or at least deeply-discounted, AI.

“ Some of it is compute that Microsoft is donating, and some of it is pursuant to an agreement where, believe me, we give the University of Washington probably the best pricing that anybody’s gonna find anywhere,” Smith said. He assured the small group of reporters present that it would be “many millions of dollars of additional computational resources.”

The announcement today didn’t include any specific numbers.

But Smith said Microsoft has already invested $165 million in the UW over several decades.

He pointed to Jones’ vision to spur “radical collaborations with businesses and communities to advance positive change,” and eliminate “any artificial barriers between the university and the communities it serves.”

Microsoft’s goal is for AI to help UW researchers solve some of the world’s biggest problems without introducing new ones.

At Tuesday’s announcement, several research students were present to demonstrate how AI supports their work.

Amelia Keyser-Gibson is an environmental scientist at the UW. She’s using AI to analyze photographs of vines, to find which adapt best to climate change.

It’s a paradox: AI produces carbon emissions. At the same time, it’s also a new tool to help reduce them.

So how do those things square for Keyser-Gibson?

“ That’s a great question, and honestly, I don’t know the answer to that,” she said. “I’m highly aware that there’s a lot of environmental impact of using AI, but what I can say is that this has allowed us to make research innovations that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise.”

“If we had had to manually annotate every single image that would’ve been an undergrad doing that for hours,” Keyser-Gibson continued. “And we didn’t have the budget. We didn’t have the manpower to do that.”

“AI exists. If we don’t use it as researchers, we’re gonna fall behind.”

Microsoft reports on its own carbon emissions. But like most AI companies, it doesn’t reveal everything.

That’s one reason another UW student named Zhihan Zhang is using AI to estimate how much energy AI is using.

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