3rd Time's A Charm

Tournament champs for the 3rd straight year

The Southern Ram wrestling team entered last weekend's Musselman Duals as two time defending champions with a perfect 9-0 record.  The tournament featured 20 teams from three states and included numerous state place-winners and several defending state champions.  The competition was tough but our Southern Rams were up for the challenge.

Friday evening was set aside for pool competition where the Rams were up against Jefferson, WV, Spring Mills WV, Clarke Co. VA, and Riverbend VA.  The first match of the tournament was against Clarke Co where Southern tore through the line-up, coming away with a perfect 84-0 victory.  In this match, senior Cole Sweitzer scored his 100th career victory with a first period pin.

Win 100 for Cole Sweitzer

Our second match of the tournament was against a tough team from Riverbend.  They featured 6 returning state qualifiers and ended the weekend with 5 undefeated wrestlers.  It was quite a battle, but in the end, the Rams came away with a 39-32 victory.  It would be the only defeat Riverbend would suffer all weekend.

Jake Sweitzer with a pin vs Riverbend

The final two matches Friday evening would end up being all Southern.  The Rams defeated Jefferson 81-0 then followed that with a 60-16 thumping of Spring Mills to finish day one as pool champions with a 4-0 record.

Declan McCann has no trouble vs Spring Mills

Saturday was set aside for the championship rounds and would prove to be much tougher.  Each pool winner would face off head to head to determine the overall tournament champion.  The first match of the day saw the Rams taking on the host school from Musselman.  Southern took an early lead and never looked back, cruising to a 60-21 victory.  Up next were the three toughest teams in the tournament.

Aiden Schwab working for a pin vs Musselman

In round six, Southern faced a tough team from Linganore, MD which features a 2x defending state champion and three other state place-winners.  Linganore took an early lead of 16-0 after winning the first 3 bouts.  After the next three bouts, the Rams still trailed 22-12 before freshman Aiden Schwab won by tech fall.  Colum McCann, Brogan Kealy and Nate Tasker each picked up pins to give Southern the lead 35-22.  Linganore was able to win three of the final four bouts to close the gap but Southern was able to hold on the win the match 41-34 to go 6-0 on the weekend.

Brogan Kealy scores a pin

Round 7 would prove to be one of the most exciting matches in Southern wrestling history.  The match had it all: big comebacks, close bouts and a sudden death overtime thriller.  The started at 182 and the Williamsport Wildcats came charging out of the gate with three straight pins, including an epic upper body throw at 220 handing Hunter Park his only loss of the season.  The match at 285 featured two of the best heavy weight wrestlers in the state going head to head.  The bout did not disappoint as the two big men battled tough with the Williamsport wrestler coming away with the victory in the final ultimate ride out overtime period.  With a pin at 106 and a win at 113, the Rams found themselves in unfamiliar territory, down 30-0 in a dual meet wrestling match.

Cole Sweitzer in the battle of the big men

At 120, things were looking pretty bad for the Rams when Colum McCann fell behind early and was down 16-4 in the third period.  The sophomore never quit wrestling and hit his opponent with an impressive headlock to score the win by pin and keep the Rams hopes alive.  Brogan Kealy and Nate Tasker scored pins for the Rams to close the deficit to 30-18.  At 138, Williamsport scored a win by decision and led 33-18 with four bouts remaining.  It would be their final win of the match.

Jake Sweitzer would win by decision and Jace Guy would receive a forfeit to make the score 33-27 with two bouts remaining.  At 160, junior Declan McCann scored a big pin for the Rams to tie the score at 33 with only the bout at 170 remaining to determine the winner of the dual meet.  Freshman Hunter took the mat in the final bout with everything riding on his shoulders.  That's a lot of pressure on a young man but he wrestled tough with poise and came away with a 3-1 victory to clinch the match for the Rams 36-33.

For all the marbles

In the final match of the tournament, Southern faced Eastern View, VA who has wrestled for the championship of the tournament three of the past four years.  The Rams score pins at each of the first for weights to take a 24-0 lead.  Eastern View won the next four bouts to close the gap to 24-19 but the Rams scored pins by Evan Paugh at 138 and Jake Sweitzer at 145 to stretch the lead to 36-19.  The bout at 152 featured two of the best wrestlers in the entire tournament going head to head.  Senior Jace Guy faced off against Drew Shurina in great match that ended with Shurina squeaking by with a 10-8 victory, handing Guy his only loss of the season.  At 170, Hunter Sanders picked up another big win for Southern to clinch the match victory and the tournament championship for the Rams.

The Southern Rams are now 17-0 on the season and are off until December 29 when Oakdale and Century come to town for a tri match.

Team Results

Southern 84 - Clarke Co. VA 0
Southern 39 - Riverbend VA 32
Southern 81 - Jefferson 0
Southern 60 - Spring Mills WV 16
Southern 60 - Musselman WV 21
Southern 41 - Linganore MD 34
Southern 36 - Williamsport MD 33
Southern 42 - Eastern View VA 31

Individual Results

7-1 - Jake Sweitzer (145) - 4 pins
7-1 - Jace Guy (152) - 6 pins
7-1 - Hunter Sanders (170) - 4 pins
7-1 - Hunter Park (220) - 5 pins
6-2 - Colum McCann (120) - 5 pins
6-2 - Brogan Kealy (126) - 4 pins
6-2 - Declan McCann (160) - 5 pins
6-2 - Cole Sweitzer (285) - 2 pins
5-3 - Aiden Schwab (113) - 2 pins
5-3 - Cameron Glover (195) - 1 pin
4-4 - Jeremiah Mellinger (106) - 3 pins
4-4 - Nate Tasker (132) - 4 pins
Elisha Skipper 3 wins, Nathan Sweitzer 2 wins, Evan Paugh 1 win.