Middletown edged Rising Sun for Westminster Duals Title while the Tigers’ Tyler Garvin and Mason Testerman reached 100-win milestones this week - it was some amazing Maryland wrestling!
Freshman Tobias White (150) and sophomore Landon Hofgesang (285) registered critical falls, and second-year sophomore Nathan Hollis avoided being pinned in the night's final bout as Middletown clung to a 38-37 dual meet victory over Rising Sun for the overall title at the Dec. 27-28 Westminster Duals.
"The match started at 138 pounds. After nine matches, the score was Middletown 38 and Rising Sun 9," said Rising Sun coach Seth Garvin. "With five matches remaining, Rising Sun needed to pin out to get the victory. [Four Rising Sun wrestlers] recorded pins. That put the match at Middletown 38 and Rising Sun 33."
Rising Sun's 132-pound senior Jonathan Horne needed to pin Hollis to secure a victory, if not, a technical fall to tie the match.
Horne managed a dominant 11-1 major decision, but it was not enough.
"The efforts of our underclassmen were huge. Nathan just started wrestling for us last season. The two big-time matches in deciding the final were Tobias and Landon, who are both new to the starting lineup this season,” said Jason Strube, an assistant to his cousin and head coach, Chad Strube.
"Both had tough bouts that were trending toward being decisions in our favor. Yet both were aggressive wrestlers who pushed their opponents and ended up getting their pins. With the final team score being decided by one point, if either of them don't get pins, we'd end up losing the dual meet.”
White split time at 144 and 150 pounds, finishing at 9-0 over the course of the event to improve his record to 20-1 on the season. Hofgesang went 8-2 and is 21-3 on the year.
"The bonus points were really big in those matches," said third-year coach Chad Strube, a two-time Class 2A-1A state champion for Middletown in 2009 and 2010. "We took a lot away from this tournament. We took a lot of notes and we're going to bring them back to the room so that these guys continue to improve."
Junior Class 2A-1A state runner-up Alex DeVriendt (138) went 10-0 to improve to 22-0, senior third-place state finisher Alex Hoy (215) went 10-0 with nine pins and rose to 24-0 with 20 pins and three technical falls, and senior Kashton Dalhouse (175) went 9-0 to improve to 23-0.
"I got my 100th career win in my second match of the tournament," said DeVriendt, a county and regional champion last season. "I'm at 108 career wins. The year before last I was third at states, so it’s all about improving from one year to the next. Now I'm looking to improve on what I did last year."
Hoy is equally determined to win states this year. Hoy pinned eventual Class 2A-1A state champion Adin Hastings of Williamsport in last year's Class 2A-1A West Regional finals only to finish third at states.
Hoy lost his semifinal, 6-4, to South Carroll sophomore Manny Rodrigues, who lost his finals bout to Hastings, 3-1, in overtime. Hoy finished third following a 31-second fall against Scott Beitzel, a 6-3 semifinal loser to Hastings.
"I've definitely not forgotten about placing third last year and it's definitely a motivation for me. I've worked even harder this year to get that state title," Hoy said. "We beat some good teams at the tournament this week, and our lineup looked strong doing it. That gives us a lot of confidence moving forward."
Also wrestling well for the Knights were senior Stephen Stottlemyer (144/150) and junior Henry Graham (157). Stottlemyer finished at 9-1 and is 21-1 on the season on the way to earning his 100th career victory, while Graham went 8-2 to improve to 20-4.
“The Middletown match was kind of a disappointment because we had wrestled so well throughout the tournament,” said senior two-time Class 2A-1A state champion Tyler Garvin (120). “I felt like we were the better team, but we just came up short in some matches. I believe that our team has the belief that we are right there with the best in the state.”
Rising Sun achieves milestones nevertheless.
Rising Sun's Garvin siblings claimed the Outstanding Wrestler honors in Tyler Garvin as the Lower Weight, and his sophomore sibling Zach Garvin (157/165) as the Upperweight. It was a repeat performance for the brothers, with Tyler earning Outstanding Wrestler honors for lightweights at the December 8-9 Knightmare Invitational at Parkville High, and Zach doing the same in that event winning Outstanding Wrestler for middleweights. Tyler Garvin went 10-0 at the Westminster Duals with four pins and three technical falls, improving his record on the year to 17-0, and his career record to 109-0. Tyler registered his 100th career victory with a fall in 2:30 over Liberty's Jonathan Piek.
“It felt great getting my 100th win, but it wasn’t necessarily a goal that I had circled as one of my main goals,” Tyler Garvin said. “I’m working toward bigger accomplishments, but I knew it would come with consistent work and it’s a great feeling.”
Tyler is on pace to become the first Rising Sun wrestler to complete his entire high school career without suffering defeat. As a repeat state champion at Rising Sun, Tyler is tied with 1994 graduate Jason Townsend and assistant coach Anthony Cimorosi (2013). Tyler can join 2008 graduate Matt Jackson – who placed third at states as a freshman – as the Tigers only other three-time state champion.
A sixth-place finisher at states, Zach went 10-0 with six pins and also improved his overall record to 17-0. Zach also earned an overtime, 10-8, victory over senior Class 4A-3A state runner-up, Jonathan Chang of Clarksburg.
Also going unbeaten for the Tigers was senior returning Class 2A-1A state runner-up Mason Testerman (190), who finished at 10-0 with nine pins to improve to 17-0.
Testerman also improved his career record to 101-8, earning his 100th victory with a 42-second pin against Middletown's Desean Butts. Testerman also earned a 4-1 decision over Calvert Hall's Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association champion Sisto Averno III. "Hitting the 100 mark feels great, but my real goal is focused on our team's success. "I'm very proud of that, but I don't plan on that being my biggest accomplishment of the season. I want to be a state champion individually as well as with my team," Testerman said. "Each match, I'm going out there and trying to do whatever it takes to get the team the win. The personal accomplishments just come with that. Putting my name on the short list of people who have accomplished the 100-win total was definitely something that I wanted to get done."
Also wrestling well for the Tigers were the Brown siblings, freshman Izaiah (106) and junior Xzavier (126) along with sophomore Adan Stewart (113). A fifth-place finisher at states, Xzavier Brown had seven pins and is 16-1 on the year, Stewart had nine pins and rose to 15-2, and Izaiah had six and is 16-3.
Tigers' senior Johnathan Horne (132) went 9-1 with five pins to improve to 17-3, junior Elijah Farr (215) went 8-2 with seven pins to improve to 14-3, and sophomore Tyler Henderson (138/144) went 7-3 with six pins to improve to 12-5. Farr has a career record of 92-17. The Garvins' father, Luke, was a 103-pound Class 2A-1A state champ in 1996 and a runner-up at 112 pounds in 1997. Their uncle, Seth, the Tigers' head coach, was a third-place finisher at 112 pounds in 1995 and serves as the Tigers' head coach.
Mavericks finish third
Manchester Valley slipped to third place with an 18-3 record, even as they've earned a dual meet victory over defending Class 2A state dual meet champion Stephen Decatur from earlier this season, according to coach David Dodson.
The Mavericks are led by sophomore third-place Class 2A-1A state finisher Bradyn VanDervoort (138), who went 7-2 to improve to 18-3. Sophomore teammate Kyle Reid (106) went 8-1 to improve to 19-1, junior Cru Boog (285) went 8-1 to improve to 19-2, and senior Gunner Grimm (190) is 17-4 with 16 pins.
Others wrestling well at Westminster
Quince Orchard had two unbeaten wrestlers in juniors Harrison Spaldoni (113) and Gavin Hill (150), each of whom went 9-0. A fourth-place state finisher with 98 career victories, Spadoni totaled five pins with a technical fall to improve his record on the year to 22-0. Hill is 18-3 with 75 career wins.
Clarksburg junior Owen Pelaez (144) went 10-0, is 22-0 on the year, and has won all of his bouts at the Westminster Duals. A two-time Montgomery County champion, Pelaez has been both a champion and runner-up at regionals and placed fifth at states last year.
Pelaez's teammate, Chang, lost an overtime 10-8 decision to Zach Garvin. Chang was a Class 4A-3A state runner-up last year after placing third as a sophomore. Chang went 9-1, is 21-1 on the year, registered his 100th career victory against Westminster, and has a career record of 104-8.
Franklin senior Max Conley (132) went 9-0, including a 10-6 decision over fall against VanDervoort and a fall against Horne. Conley transferred from Mount St. Joseph, where he placed fifth at last year's Maryland Independent Schools State tournament.
Queen Anne's senior Tremaine Jackson (126) went 10-0 and is 25-0 at the Westminster Duals. Jackson's teammates, senior Will Conley (132) and freshman Alan McDonald (113) each went 8-2.
Seneca Valley 285-pounder Abubakar Sherif won five of his six matches by first-period fall. Sherif is a defending Montgomery County and regional champion who placed fourth at Class 4A-3A states.
Sherif split time at 285 pounds with senior teammate Wayne Tabb, who went 4-0. Tabb was a Class 4A-3A state runner-up at 215 pounds and is "working to get down" to that weight, according to Screaming Eagles' coach Clinton Holley.
"[Wayne] is not at 215 yet," Holley said. "So, he is splitting time with Abubakar at heavy weight until then."
Comments