2A/1A Lightweight Wrestler of the Year... Congrats to Tanner!

Boonsboro’s Tanner Halling had one mission this year and that was to dominate every opponent he encountered on the mat. Not just dominate them but break them and state his case as one of the best, if not the best wrestler, in Maryland.

Unfortunately for the competition, Halling did just that, putting his second consecutive undefeated season in the books (49-0) while only wrestling in the third period one time during the season and that was to chase a pin for a team win. All 45 of Halling’s contested matches ended in either a pin (18) or a technical fall (27), four forfeits account for the other wins.

This level of dominance coupled with winning a second state championship and leading his squad to its first ever Washington County Tournament title has led to Halling being named a Legacy Wrestling Lightweight of the Year.

“It’s pretty cool,” remarked Halling. “I like it. I feel like it’s something, it’s an award that I don’t take lightly. It’s everyone in the state, including private schools, so I feel like winning this award kinda proves what I thought, I’m one of the best, if not the best wrestlers in the state. I feel like this proves it. I feel like this is great for my club, Coco Trained, and it’s great for Boonsboro because those places don’t get enough attention. If places like that get more attention, I feel like wrestling in our area will grow. I’m just really happy to be representing this award and not be in the middle of the state, being out west and receiving this award is pretty cool.”

Halling, who went wire-to-wire as No. 1 in the state, set the tone for his season at the Waterway Duals last October when he ran into New Jersey’s Gino Schinina (St. Peter’s Prep). Schinina is a Honorable Mention wrestler in High School on SI’s 132lb national ratings that placed fourth at states this year (NJ is a single class tournament). If the name rings a bell, it would be because Schinina pinned Archbishop Spalding’s Sean Garretson at Ray Oliver in December. Halling won the battle with Schinina, 4-1.

The year kicked off for Boonsboro as it has in recent times by hosting their Battle in The Boro Tournament. The Battle runs pools on the first day that slots you into bracketed action on the second day. In Pool A, Halling pinned all four of his foes in under a minute, the quickest being in 38 seconds over Braxton Brady (Pallotti). The other three were in 51, 55, and 59 seconds.

Once in the bracket, the senior switched to tech fall mode and piled them up four deep, including a 19-3 tally in 3:38 in the finals with Brunswick’s three-time state placer and runner-up this year, Seth Crawford (No. 7 at 138 in the final rankings). In the semis, Clarksburg’s Brenten Prestcott fell by the same 19-3 count, but it only took 1:48. This was the fourth Battle in the Boro crown for Halling. Despite Halling’s incredible point haul, No. 41 Boonsboro finished second to No. 13 Brunswick.

“I knew that Brunswick was going to be there, and I knew that Seth (Crawford) was around my weight,” Halling offered. “Since we ran the tournament, we waited to see what weight he would go, and I went his weight. It was me, Seth, and Cooper (Cammarata). I wanted to go in the hardest bracket. I feel like that helped our team too. If I want to accomplish these bigger goals that I have, I feel like that’s just going to happen (winning four tournament titles).”

Following that, the Warriors went into dual meet mode as their remaining schedule until the postseason would be two dual meet tournaments and their regularly scheduled meets. At Clash at the Creek, Boonsboro was able to defeat Brunswick.

“Those were team things, so I was a team player, I did what my coach wanted me to do,” Halling stated. “It was really just a team thing. I remember about Clash at the Creek, we beat Brunswick, and we were all super excited because us and Brunswick are kinda like rivals. I feel like we don’t really like each other. When we beat them, it was super crazy and there were a couple of crazy upsets that happened.”

At their next dual tournament, Dorsey Duals, Halling had a chance to square off with Walt Whitman’s No. 4 Solomon Randall, who at the time was a defending state champion and went on to win his second 4A/3A crown in a row in March and put forth an impressive effort that resulted in an 18-3 technical fall.

“I knew he was going to be there, so I wanted to prove that there’s levels to this game,” Halling said. “I wanted to prove that I was the better state champion.”

Boonsboro’s dual season was a mixed bag with wins over No. 43 Francis Scott Key, No. 44 Century, and No. 45 Liberty. They lost to No. 7 Middletown, No. 38 Walkersville, Williamsport and Brunswick. In the Brunswick match, Halling teched Crawford in the second period once more.

The Warriors qualified for the 1A West Region Duals where they avenged their loss to Williamsport, advancing to see Middletown, who put them out of the bracket.

The individual postseason was next for Halling with one more final shot to showcase his relentless pace and fury on the mat.

Washington County consists of just five teams, so Halling only wrestled two matches and spent less than a minute on the mat winning them, dropping South Hagerstown’s Hunter Benson in 18 seconds and winning his fourth county title with a 35 second flattening of Smithburg’s Logan Crutchfield. The icing on the cake for Halling and the Warriors came with them winning the team title for the first time in school history.

“Honestly, on that day, I was more worried about looking at who went my weight for states,” recalled Halling. “I just wanted to see who stayed, who had the balls to stay at my weight. Obviously, I was focused on the team win because we never won it and we knew that we were going to have to perform well to win. I just went out there and did my job, which was to pin.

“Obviously I’m proud of it (four county crowns) but it’s Washington County, so there’s better things to do so I’m just really happy with how I’ve done. The team win was super exciting. We talked about it all year. As a team captain, I was getting in their ears, like go to extra practices. We want to beat Williamsport and get that county title. We had our ups and downs. It’s huge, we’ve never done that before. I like to be the best and I feel like this year we were the best sport at Boonsboro.”

A fourth region title was on the table as the whistle blew to start 2A/1A West competition. Halling racked up two first period tech falls, 16-1 in 54 seconds over Crutchfield and 19-3 in 1:11 over Middletown’s Xavier Ford, who placed in the 4A/3A states a year ago for Tuscarora.

This set up a finals match with a familiar face, No. 3 Devon Opel (Northern Garrett). Halling had won his last two regional championships over Opel by a fall and a tech, as well as last year's state championship, 8-4. This year, Halling would file one more tech of Opel away in 3:40, 21-5. The 2A/1A West is known to be the most difficult region in the state so four-time champs are not common.

“I didn’t know how few people had done it until my coach told me,” said Halling. “And I was like, oh, ok, it’s pretty cool. It’s funny because every single year I wrestled a Northern Garrett kid in the finals (Nate Wilhelm as a freshman). I’m really proud of that because regionals is obviously a bigger thing. I feel like it’s the first real postseason event for me. So, just going out there and letting it fly and performing tough was good to do that all four times.”

At the state tournament, Halling picked up where he left off at regions with one tech fall after another, beginning with his first-round match with Parkside’s Canaan Cornish, which ended in 1:06 by tech fall, 19-2. C. Milton Wright’s No. 11 Mitchell Nguyen, a multi-time state placer, made it into the second period before succumbing in 2:11 to a 20-3 tech in the quarters.

No. 17 Sam Vissers of Hammond lasted nine seconds into the middle frame, 2:09, before falling by tech, 17-1, to set up yet another meeting with Opel. Halling was frustrated that last year’s final with Opel was close when he had always had little trouble with his rival. In the finals, Halling went to work and without mercy, pummeled Opel with a 22-5 tech fall in 2:27.

“I was telling everyone before states, that was what was going to happen,” proclaimed Halling. “I just wanted to go out there and prove that I was the best in the state, no matter what weight. I wanted to prove to everyone that I was the best guy in that arena. I knew that was going to be my last high school match, so I didn’t want to go in timid. Honestly, I wanted to beat him up. I wanted to scare him, and I wanted to intimidate him, and I feel like it worked."

“I was just looking at him the whole tournament and picturing me beating him up and me just taking him down and taking him down. Visualizing that was really huge. I knew I was going to push the pace and beat you up and there’s nothing you can do about it. I’m happy with it (two state titles), but obviously it’s not what I wanted. It’s never been done in my school. I knew my coaches were super proud of me so really, I kinda wanted to show, that yeah, I only have two state titles but no matter how many titles I have, I’m still the best.”

Halling wasn’t quite done yet, though, as he had his eyes set on the NHSCA Senior Nationals in Virginia Beach. Halling rolled in there as a two-time All-American (6th as a SO and 8th last year) and added one more AA notch to his belt when he stormed through the brackets to reach the 126lb finals, including a huge win over three-time California state placer and No. 29 in the nation, Paulo Valdez (Hesperia), 11-0, in the quarters. Halling got to that point with two tech falls and one pin.

After edging three-time Georgia 4A state champ, Olli Webb (Southeast Whitfield), 3-2, in the semis, Halling ran into a nationally ranked wrestler he couldn’t solve, Massachusetts’s Musa Tamaradze (No. 22 at 132). Tamaradze, who wrestled at the New York Military Academy, won a NHSCA Junior crown last year and added the senior edition to his collection with a 9-3 decision.

“I was super proud of that,” reflected Halling. “Just carrying over what I had from states and just carrying over that mindset of just like, go score, go score, go score. I definitely improved on a lot of positions this year. I feel like just getting more savvy in those positions was huge. I had a lot of good people come in and help me out and help me get ready at Coco Trained. The first takeout food I got, I wrote on the box “NHSCA National Champ” and I put it in the fridge and left it there. I had two people I wanted to wrestle on my side of the bracket but they both lost to the Georgia kid. I was happy with it.”

Current Boonsboro head coach Bret Nalley served as an assistant with Shawn Smith for Halling’s first three years in the program before taking over the reins this year. Nalley is a 2006 Boonsboro graduate so his ascension to head coach was a fitting and a flawless transition.

Nalley was Boonsboro’s first regional champion and state placer, placing fourth in the state as a senior. Nalley was also the first member of the Warriors’ 100-win club and the first to win four county titles (Halling is the second). The University of Maryland grad started as a volunteer assistant and moved to assistant coach in 2013. During his time coaching at his alma mater, Boonsboro has produced 17 state placers and four state champions.

“Tanner Halling as a wrestler is relentless,” Nalley marveled. “He went undefeated his junior season but the growth from last year to this year was something special. All 49 matches, this year, ended by tech fall, fall or forfeit. Only one match reached the third period and that’s because the team needed a pin to win the dual."

“And as a leader you will not find a better individual when it comes to leading by example. He’s the hardest working individual at practice whether it’s conditioning, drilling or live wrestling. His motivation was contagious, it propelled our team to its first ever Washington County Championship and a team record six individual champs. Although his teammates will likely not miss being spammed with 20 missed calls for running late to practice, we will certainly miss his energy and goofy personality. He’s brought a lot of positive attention to the Boonsboro Wrestling Community, and we wish him nothing but the best at FSU!”

Frostburg State University is the next step for Halling as he will continue his wrestling career close to home.

“I just can’t wait to experience a college room every day,” Halling said. “I’ve never been in a consistent room with as many tough guys as Frostburg. Look how far I’ve come with the rooms I have now. So, when I step into the college room, I will get so much better.”

Halling leaves behind a 179-2 career record, that includes a 48-0 junior season. The two losses came in his first two state tournaments. The freshman loss being 3-1 to Rising Sun’s nationally ranked and Fargo National Champ, Tyler Garvin, who never lost while in high school en route to capturing three state championships. Halling came back to take third.

As a sophomore, Halling met his junior league rival from South Carroll in the finals, JoJo Gigliotti, who won his first of three state titles (and counting), with a 3-2 decision of Halling.

Halling stepped on a wrestling mat for the first time in his life when he was five years old. That first year was wrestled with the YMCA Dragons before moving on to B-AAA for four years. As his skills grew, so did his hunger for more challenges, so Halling began competing out of state a lot in West Virginia with the Iron Eagles and in Pennsylvania with TYW-PA.

Halling spent so much time chasing competition elsewhere that he was perceived to not be a Marylander by many. But a Marylander he is, and he will go down as one of our best ever. In the junior ranks, Halling collected six state championships. Three of the MSWA variety and three from MDWay.

As he awaits the fall and his time at Frostburg, Halling will train at Coco Trained, which is run by North Hagerstown High legend Brendon Colbert. Colbert went along for the journey at NHSCAs with Halling. Coco Trained has begun training out of the St. James School’s wrestling room.