What a Ride!

2016 Musselman Duals Champions!

When we boarded the bus on Friday morning headed to Inwood, WV and the 6th annual Musselman Duals, we had no idea what was in store for us.  We were missing three starting wrestlers due to injury and illness and we were scheduled to wrestle three tough teams right out of the gate on Friday evening.  The ride off the mountain was going along smoothly until we started climbing Sidling Hill.  our 65 mph trip quickly turned into a 20 mph creep up the steep grade.  Soon, we were pulled off the side of the interstate in a bus that was refusing to cooperate.  We limped into the rest area and tried to re-boot the bus.  Nearly an hour later, we were back to limping down the highway, headed in the right direction at a snails pace.  As we waited for our spare bus to come to the rescue, we advanced about a mile at a time.  Finally, the replacement bus arrived and we made it to the school nearly two hours late, but we were there and excited to get the tournament started.

Joe Embleton with the pin vs. Sherando

Our first match was against Sherano, VA.  We have battled this team many times in the past, but haven't seen them in a few years.  We were able to dominate this this time around with a convincing 63-6 win in round one.  Our second match of the tournament was against the defending team champion, Bethesda - Chevy Chase.  The match was close in the beginning, but we had an early lead and never gave it up.  In the end, the Rams were just too tough for the Barons and we prevailed 42-25 to go to 2-0.

Our third match of the night was against another team who we have had some great battles with in the past.  Millbrook, VA took the mat against Southern in a match we knew we would have to win to have a shot at the tournament championship.  We took an early 15-4 lead but soon found ourselves trailing 25-22 with 4 bouts remaining.  Hunter Park and Scotty Tichnell scored big pins for us to put us back in the lead for good.  Brison Dixon finished it off with a quick pin to give the Rams the win by the score of 40-28.  Three big wins against three good teams set the stage for our run to the championship.

We finished the night with a dominating win over Moorefield 75-6 and started day two with two more lopsided victories, 64-9 over Clarke Co., VA and 60-23 over Jefferson, WV.   Our third match on Saturday was against Spring Valley, WV.  We beat them last season in a close match and this year's contest was equally as tight.  Spring Valley took an early 15-0 lead and despite our great effort, we were never able to overcome the early deficit.  In the end, we lost our first match of the tournament 44-35, but our title hopes were still alive.

Brison Dixon with a perfect 9-0 weekend

After crushing Musselman 78-3, we were ready to face off against an unbeaten Mountain View team.  This team has wrestled in the championship match nearly every year and this season's squad was as tough as ever.  It was a winner take all match that started with our co-captain Jimmy Schwab at 145.  Schwab controlled the bout early and scored a big pin in the 2nd period to give the Rams an early lead.  Our lead didn't last as Mountain View had two of their top studs in the next two weights.  Jace Guy and Alec Horner wrestled tough, but we found ourselves down 9-6.  Joe Embleton pinned at 170 and Nate Sweitzer and Hunter Park got pinned a t 182 and 195 and we trailed the match 21-12.

Scotty Tichnell won a decision and Cole Sweitzer lost a decision to make the score 24-15 Mountain View heading into the lower weights.  We knew there was little room for error and our lightweights took care of business in impressive fashion.  Our comeback started with a quick pin at 106 by the undefeated senior, Brison Dixon.  Next was a gritty decision by freshman Joey McComas followed by a clutch pin by junior Zach Burgess.  Suddenly, we found ourselves with a 30-24 lead with three matches remaining.

At 126, co-captain Jake E Sweitzer was able to pull out an exciting 2-1 victory and Nate Tasker was able to score a 4-2 win to seal the deal for the Rams.  With a 36-24 lead, we forfeited the final bout to bring the score of the championship match to 36-30 in favor of the Southern Rams!  By virtue of our final victory over Mountain View, we were crowned champions of the 2016 Musselman Duals.

Musselman Duals Team Scores
Southern Garrett 63 - Sherando 6
Southern Garrett 42 - Bethesda CC 25
Southern Garrett 40 - Millbrook 28
Southern Garrett 75 - Moorefield 6
Southern Garrett 64 - Clarke Co. 9
Southern Garrett 60 - Jefferson 23
Spring Valley 44 - Southern Garrett 35
Southern Garrett 73 - Musselman 3
Southern Garrett 36 - Mountain View 30

Jake and Brison with all-tournament honors

Musselman Duals Individual Results
9-0  Brison Dixon
9-0  Jake E Sweitzer
8-1  Joey McComas
8-1  Nate Tasker
8-1  Jimmy Schwab
8-1  Jace Guy
5-1  Joe Embleton
7-2  Zach Burgess
7-2  Scotty Tichnell
7-2  Cole Sweitzer
5-4  Alec Horner
5-4  Hunter Park
2-3  Brad Davis
1-5  Nathan Sweitzer
2-6 Brandon Mersing
1-0  Cole Baker