The first of Legacy Wrestling’s Outstanding Upper weights, may in fact, be the best the state of Maryland has to offer. Gilman’s Emmitt Sherlock ended his junior campaign ranked 10th in the nation at 165lbs. No other Maryland wrestlers appear in the numbered rankings, although, a few appear in the Honorable Mention section of their weight classes.
Sherlock began to climb the national rankings last summer when he was a Double All-American at Fargo at 160lbs, placing third in 16U Freestyle and second in 16U Greco-Roman. Interestingly both of his losses came from the same wrestler, Illinois’ Aaron Stewart (No. 11 nationally at 157 by SB Live). In FS, Sherlock beat Pennsylvania’s Cael Weidemoyer (Faith Christian Academy – No. 23 at 157).
Sherlock captured his first Ray Oliver championship after being a two-time runner-up. The gold came with a 1-0 win over Virginia’s No. 17 Lane Foard (Benedictine Prep). Over the last two seasons, Sherlock has faced Foard four times and won all four meetings.
The junior further solidified his national profile by taking seventh at the grueling Walsh Ironman Tournament in Ohio. The Ironman is considered the most difficult in season high school tournament. In the seventh-place match, the Greyhound edged Nick Singer (Faith Christian Academy), 2-1. Singer would be in the national rankings, but Pennsylvania has no 165lb weight class, so once their season got rolling, Singer was squeezed out of the lineup as they have 160 and 172 in PA.
At Ironman, Sherlock also took out No. 20 Max Norman (Baylor, TN). His two losses were to wrestlers who would migrate to 175 and sit in the top two spots there, No. 1 Angelo Ferrari (Melissa, TX) and William Henckel (Blair Academy, NJ).
A fourth place showing at the Beast of the East improved on a sixth-place finish as a sophomore. Sherlock fell to No. 9 Jordan Chapman (Cranford, NJ) in the consolation finals. His other loss was to No. 8 Ryan Garvick (Central Dauphin, PA).
In addition to beating Singer again, other grapplers who felt Sherlock’s rath at the Beast were, No. 22 Noah Hall (Liberty Bealeton, VA), Bryce Griffin (Civic Memorial, IL – HM at 157), and Evan Rizzo (Brecksville, OH).
The Haswell M. Franklin Gilman Duals afforded Sherlock an opportunity to square off with a 2023 National Prep runner-up, No. 18 Xavier Giles (Green Farms Academy, CT), Sherlock won that bout, 1-0.
In the highly anticipated dual meet with Mt. St. Joseph, who the Greyhounds toppled to take over the No. 1 team ranking in Maryland, Sherlock authored a key win by pinning the Gaels’ Nicolas Barnabae (No. 7 at 157 in Legacy Wrestling’s MD Rankings).
The junior’s next order of business was to lock down his second consecutive MIAA and MIS titles, after being third at both as a freshman. The No. 10 grappler in MD, St. Paul’s Haden Myers was discarded with a 24-9 tech fall in the MIAA Finals. Maryland’s No. 2 165lber, Bullis’ Sepanta Ahanj-Elias was defeated 8-2 in the state finals.
Sherlock reached the National Prep finals and finished second after falling to the No. 1 165lber in the country, Wyoming Seminary’s Joseph Sealey. A win over Foard propelled him into the finals for his highest prep placing to date. A glitch in the Matrix allowed Sherlock to sit himself up to become a rare five-time National Prep All-American.
During the COVID year, the preps were run in an open format and Sherlock entered as an eighth grader (which is normally allowed) and placed third. As a freshman, Sherlock was fifth and he landed on the sixth spot of the podium last year.
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