What a week of outstanding achievement in high school athletics among boy athletes.
When it came time to pick The Sun's boys Athlete of the Week, there were more possible winners than we sometimes have in a month.
Donya Jackson, a Calvert Hall basketball player and two-time Baltimore Catholic League defensive player of the year, had a breakout offensive week, scoring 27 points against Archbishop Spalding in the BCL quarterfinals and 29 points against then-No. 1 St. Frances in the semifinals.
When fellow Sun sportswriter Ken Murray heard those numbers he said, "And you have options better than that?"
This week we had a real competition.
Robbie Creese, a junior at Glenelg, won the 1,600 (4:22), 3,200 (9:56) and 800-meter races (1:58.11) at the 2A indoor state track meet. He won the 800 with the best time in the Baltimore area this year and broke a 26-year-old record in the process.
Mark Colabucci, a Reservoir junior, won the 145-pound East regional wrestling championship to lead his team to the regional title and improve his own record to 40-0.
Charlie Melesh, a senior at Annapolis, set state swim meet records in the 100 butterfly (53.03) and the 200 individual medley (1:57.41). He also swam on the team's first place 200 medley relay team (1:46.08.)
Three other nominees, Sam Pellerito of Carver A&T and Adikola Oliganju and Elton Joe, both of Digital Harbor, each won 2A North regional wrestling titles. In each case, the regional titles were the first in their respective schools' history.
So who took the honor?
Bobby Bowman, a senior wrestler at Mount St. Joseph.
He went into the National Prep Wrestling Tournament at Lehigh University last weekend as the No. 6 seed. Over two days of competition, he beat the No. 3 seed, Scott Patrick of McDonogh, the Maryland Independent Schools champion, and the No. 2 seed, James Wieller of Wyoming Seminary (Pa.).
Bowman lost 5-4 in the championship match to No. 1 seed Tanner Eitel of Bishop Lynch (Texas), who was at one point warned for stalling after Bowman had escaped to close within 5-4 and aggressively sought to get a take down. The Gael senior got it, but the match official judged Bowman's take down at the edge of the mat that came as the buzzer sounded, coming an instant too late.
"We watched the film four or five times," said Mount St. Joseph coach Paul Triplett. "It was a pretty dramatic finish and it could have gone either way. As the referee conferred with the assistant referee everyone in the building was chanting 'Two! Two!'
"It was a very, very close call. But I guess we needed an extra half second. Bobby wrestled really well."
Bowman's second-place finish allowed his team to finish fifth in the tournament in which 114 teams competed. He was also the highest finishing competitor from Maryland.
Any one of the aforementioned boys could have been Athlete of the Week. For those who wonder, the final choice was determined based on the fact that Bowman performed on the national stage against the best in the country.