Mckinley Jovanovic capped off a perfect, 29-0 season on the mat with a state championship victory in early March.
The Montgomery Blair High School senior wrestler is this week’s Montgomery County High School Athlete of the Week.
Each week throughout the school year, the Montgomery County Sports Hall of Fame is partnering with Montgomery Community Media to honor an Athlete of the Week from the county’s more than 40 public and private high schools.
Courtesy of Tino Pham.
Jovanovic first became interested in wrestling after a friend recommended it to her, head coach Justin Rogers told MCM.
“When you start to think about hard work and what it means – that is what Mckinley represents,” Rogers said. “The amount of effort and work that went into it, [the state championship] was well deserved.”
The Blazers had a solid campaign, finishing 8-6 in the middle of the Class 4A South division. A 72-3 team win over Northwood Feb. 1 highlighted a season-high streak of six wins.
Blair upset the 3-seeded Dr. Henry A. Wise Pumas before dropping a tight contest with Bethesda-Chevy Chase in the round of sixteen.
Jovanovic was one of the team’s captains this year, a role that she never took lightly.
“Sometimes when there’s this coach-student athlete relationship, kids can be scared to speak their mind or give accurate, real feedback to the adults,” Rogers said. “Mckinley never missed a beat. If there was something that she thought needed to be different, I knew I could always ask her and get an honest opinion.”
Jovanovic’s most recent loss came in last year’s state quarterfinals.
Competing in the 120-pound class, Jovanovic also won two local tournaments this season, including an invitational tournament at Winters Mill High School in Westminster in February.
Featured image courtesy of Tino Pham.
