Congrats to Evan Gavin!

Evan Gavin’s St. Mary’s Ryken team was a mystery to most Marylanders. Some of their names were known, but unless you were directly tied to the program, you probably didn’t know much about what and or how they were doing through the first half of the season as outside of dual meets, Ryken didn’t really hit the local fray until mid-January’s War on the Shore.

Locals, specifically No. 3 Stephan Mason of the Bullis School, crossed paths with The Knights at the Beast of the East. Gavin (215 pounds) decked Mason there in 50 seconds while posting a 4-2 record and coming up two wins from placing after losing to Anthony Jackson of Paul VI in Louisiana. Gavin’s other loss was to another Paul VI guy, but the Virginia version in No. 6 in the nation, Cash Colbert.

The senior seemed to enjoy the traveling as Gavin reached the finals of every tournament on foreign soil, except Beast. On the first weekend of December a crown was gained on a trip to the north into Pennsylvania at the Chartiers Houston Tournament, where Gavin stuck Beth Center’s Noah Layhue in the first period of the finals, 1:53, and added three other first period falls to the bracket.

The following week, the Ryken bus pulled into New Jersey for the Rick I Memorial Tournament with Gavin once again ascending to the top spot of the podium on a first period pin of Matawan Regional’s Ajibola Oshin, 1:56. A 44 second pin and an 18-3 technical fall delivered Gavin to the finals.

After the Beast of the East there was some downtime for Christmas and then back up to Pennsylvania for a tournament that’s become a staple on the Ryken schedule, the MyHouse Trojan Wars. Gavin marched to those finals with ease on two tech falls and pins of 57 and 41 seconds.

A bad dude awaited in the finals, though, in No. 5 nationally, Elijah Brown (Belle Vernon, PA), a two-time AAA state champion that is headed to Penn State, and he ended it early, sticking Gavin in 44 seconds.

Once the calendar flipped to 2026, a new state was added to the travel log as they boogied into Virginia for the Joe Verciglio affair and Gavin got back in the winner’s circle with a 7-2 decision of Chase Burns (Grassfield, VA). Nothing but pins were recorded by Gavin prior to the finals.

January 9th marked the first of two weekends in a row St. Mary’s Ryken would stay in Maryland as they headed to Ocean City for the War on the Shore then hosted their first tournament, the Ryken Rumble, on the 16th and 17th.

Gavin used back-to-back 17-2 tech falls, including one over No. 19 Luke Barulli (Archbishop Spalding) to reach the War semis where he would face off with three-time 2A/1A State Champion, No. 2 Landon Hamper of South Carroll. It was so close it went into overtime and was won by Gavin as he secured a fall 15 seconds into the first window, 6:15.

Stephen Decatur’s Peter Snyder is ranked 29th in the country at 190 pounds but moved up to 215 for the War since the field was more challenging than what was offered at 190. It worked out well for Snyder as he advanced to the finals and met Gavin. Snyder, who is rated second at 190 in MD, was pushed by Gavin and the win was hard to gain in the 10-7 final.

The Ryken Rumble saw Gavin return to his winning ways with a third period fall in the finals versus St. Anthony’s Patrick Donovan, 5:25. Three first period falls of 17 seconds, 1:02, and 1:01 came before that.

One last excursion to the south came before the postseason as the Knights made the trek to Ocean Lakes High School for the John Kelly Invitational. Gavin only wrestled three times with a 19-4 tech and a 50 second pin dropping him in the finals for a rematch with Grassfield’s Burns, which would end on a Gavin fall this time in 3:02.

Postseason time saw Gavin having a fine time despite a few setbacks. The WCAC Finals presented Gavin with a third shot at Colbert (Beast and then a dual), but familiarity did not breed a new outcome as Colbert coasted to a 19-4 tech fall.

Going into last year's private school’s state tournament, Gavin was the underdog to Landon’s Tiller Smith and had lost a few matches to Douglas Johnson (Saint Frances Academy), so when he made a title run taking down both grapplers it was quite surprising.

As he stepped on the MIS Mats in 2026, Gavin did so with a target on his back as the number one guy in the state rankings, who was a defending state champion. Gavin was up for what came and fended everyone off with first period falls, starting with a 37 second pin and then a 1:13 planting of No. 18 Foster Anderson (Pallotti).

The next victim was No. 16 Josiah Williamson (Archbishop Curley), who got kicked to the curb in 1:54 to set up a final bout with Bullis’ Mason, who he had not seen since the Beast. More of the same ensued as Gavin stuck Mason in 1:38 for a second state title.

After failing to place at National Preps a year ago, Gavin goes out as an All-American after landing in sixth at 215 pounds. All three losses came to post-grads; Blair’s Connor Bercume gave him two in the round of 16 and then consolation semis. The loss in the fifth-place match was to former Gilman Grappler, Gabe Smith, who spent this year at the Hill School in Pennsylvania.

Gavin picked up the biggest win of his career in the prep consolation rounds as he posted an 8-4 decision of Malvern Prep’s Bradley DiMiglio. How unlikely was that win? Well, DiMiglio placed at Beast and PowerAde, so with Gavin missing the Beast podium, this one was definitely a shocker. Gavin beat seventh place finisher, Rock Shurette (Baylor School, TN), 10-3, after taking down DiMiglio.

Gavin decided another road trip made sense as the nomad was itching to get out of Maryland once more and took his talents to the NHSCA Nationals in Virginia Beach to search for another All-American nod. Mission accomplished as Gavin worked his way through the bracket all the way to the 220-pound Senior National Finals.

The good times ended there as 5A South Carolina State Champion, Landon Jackson, got by Gavin 7-5 in the finals. Florida’s Kaleb Johns was just fifth in the 2A states but gave Gavin fits in a 7-6 bout. Georgia’s 1A state titlist, Steele Brown was another tough foe in the quarters with a 4-3 final. There were two easier ones to start with, a 20-3 tech and 5:25 pin.