Ice hockey and wrestling claimed the IAC championships, while the squash team won its first league championship in school history. Between wrestling and diving, Landon student-athletes earned multiple individual championship titles.
Here is a wrap-up of the 2023-24 winter varsity season.
Basketball: The varsity basketball team, under interim Head Coach Larry Franklin and captains Joseph Coleman ’24, Ari Hobson ’24, and Frankie Mannino ’25, had a strong start to their season. The team won their winter break tournament, the 33rd Daytona Beach Sunshine Classic, with Mannino earning MVP honors and Hobson and Ubie Zaid ’26 joining him on the all-tournament team. They also beat three of the four MAC (Mid-Atlantic Conference) teams that they played, including St. Andrew’s in the IAC/MAC Challenge when St. Andrew’s was ranked in the Washington Post Top 20. With injuries and illness sidelining almost every player at some point, the team did not see the same success in IAC play and ended the season with an overall record of 10-15 and an IAC record of 1-9. Mannino’s strong performance all season long earned him All-IAC.
Ice Hockey: Varsity ice hockey had another successful season, culminating in Head Coach Alex Parker’s second consecutive IAC championship. Captains Caden Blazer ’24, Graham Haberl ’24, Reid Pehrkon ’25, and Eli Smink ’25 led the team to an overall record of 14-3-3, a MAPHL (Mid-Atlantic Prep Hockey League) record of 7-1-2, and an undefeated 6-0 IAC record (4-0 in the regular season, and 2-0 in the tournament). Pehrkon was named IAC Co-Player of the Year, while Christian Daymude ’24 and Haberl earned All-IAC honors. Some highlights included winning against St. John’s in the regular-season finale, the first time the Bears have defeated St. John’s since the MAPHL championship game in 2020, as well as coming back from a two-goal deficit to beat Bullis in the IAC tournament championship game. Along with all the on-ice success, it should be noted that the team was part of two games to raise awareness for causes that affect so many. The first Landon-St. John’s matchup of the season, which took place in December and ended in a tie, was part of Hockey Fights Cancer, with members of both teams sporting purple stick tape to bring more awareness to cancer research. Second, Pehrkon and Georgetown Prep hockey player Dylan Moneypenny brought the Shoulder Check Initiative to the Landon-Prep hockey game to promote mental health by encouraging student-athletes to “reach out, check in, make contact.” Before the game, both teams and coaching staffs, as well as the entire crowd, took the Shoulder Check Pledge, and players from both teams donned patches on their uniforms for the cause.
Indoor Track and Field: For Head Coach Ryan Callahan’s small band of Bears, the indoor track and field season proved to be a fruitful one, energizing Landon’s track and field athletes for the upcoming spring season. Captains Ari Kalish ’24 and Milan Matteis ’25 led the team to a number of performances that will go in the record books as top-10 scores in Landon indoor history. The two biggest highlights came from Matteis, a thrower, and Larry Franklin ’25, a sprinter, at the Montgomery County Private School Championship meet. Matteis broke the Landon indoor shotput record early in the season and then went on to break his own record with a 47’6.5” throw on his way to become the Montgomery County Private School champion in the event. At the same meet, Franklin clocked a 1:12.95 500-meter dash, becoming the Montgomery County runner-up.
Riflery: Head Coach Troy Prinkey and captain Ryan Loev ’24 led a young and inexperienced squad on the riflery team this season. While they did not finish at the top of any of their competitions this season, the team -of which half the members had no previous experience with the sport and three others only had one previous season under their belt - improved their team score every competition. From the first to the last competition, the team score improved by a whopping 15.4%, even while changing out the lineup for each competition. On the individual front, Peter Grandison ’25 was the team high scorer, scoring 342 out of a possible 400 points in one of his competition rounds.
Squash: The squash team, under the leadership of Head Coach WT Miller ’86, had a historic season! Captain Caleb Wade ’24 led the team to its first league championship in program history with a final overall record of 5-2 and league record of 5-0. The team also recorded its first win in program history against Walt Whitman High School and its second win against Wakefield High School. With only two seniors on the team this year, Wade and Nicky Harazmus ’24, the future is looking bright on the squash courts!
Swimming & Diving: Captains Jackson Evans 24, Deji Jones ’24, Nathan Poulin ’24, and Thomas Shelton ’24, and Head Coach Chris Ros, led the swimming and diving team to a third-place finish at the IAC championship meet, with Zachary Fayed ’25, Jones, Matthew Sonne ’25, and George Shannon ’26 being named All-IAC. Jones also broke the school record for the 100 breaststroke during the preliminary round of the Metro championships and then broke his own record later that day in the finals (59.53)! In diving, Shannon won the IAC championship and the WMPSSDL (Washington Metropolitan Private School Swim & Dive League) championship, finished fifth at the Metro championship, and took third at Easterns. He was named WMPSSDL Male Diver of the Year. As a team, the Bears qualified 11 times for Metros, up from six last season, and the Middle School team won their championship, breaking three school records along the way!
Wrestling: The wrestling team, under the leadership of Head Coach Andy Katz and captains Nathan Furgeson ’24, James Hanley ’24, Will Levy ’24, and Tiller Smith ’25, had another successful season! With an overall record of 18-3 and an undefeated IAC record of 5-0, the team won the IAC title for the fifth time in the past six seasons. In the IAC tournament, Landon had four champions – Hanley, Max Murray ’27, Joe Papalia ’26, and DP Pope ’25. These four were named All-IAC, along with Furgeson, an IAC finalist given the at-large bid to the All-IAC squad. The team also had three state finalists in Furgeson, Hanley, and Smith - the most in program history- two of whom (Furgeson and Hanley) went on to become state champions, while Levy and Pope also emerged as state place winners. All these wrestlers made it to the National Prep tournament and performed admirably. Of note, Hanley was named Most Outstanding Wrestler at the state tournament, meaning that Landon wrestlers have earned this award in three consecutive seasons – Hanley in 2024, Joel Brown ’23 in 2023, and Levy in 2022.
