Embracing The Grind

Sophomore Jake W. Sweitzer was 7-0 this weekend

The Southern Rams hit the road this past weekend to compete in the Grindstone Duals at Winters Mill High School in Westminster, MD.  Ten teams were scheduled to compete, with most being big schools from down state.  The east coast snowstorm took it's toll on attendance, but that did not stop the Rams from wrestling some very tough competition.

Junior Jace Guy was also 7-0 at the tournament

Round one on Friday found us up against a tough Paint Branch team who was able to knock us off last season.  The outcome this season would be drastically different.  Southern took an early lead and poured it on throughout the match, coming away with a solid 51-22 victory.  The second round was against Owings Mills, a team we know very well from previous seasons.  This match was quite a battle from beginning to end.  The Rams won the first bout then dropped the next three to fall behind 15-3.  After winning the next three matches, Southern led 19-15.  It was back and forth the rest of the way, coming down to the final bout to determine the winner.  Freshman Colum McCann was in a situation where he needed to pin his opponent for the Rams to pull off the victory.  It was a crazy match with each wrestler scoring a ton of points.  McCann had his opponent on his back several times but could never finish him off.  In the end, the scoreboard read 25-23 in favor of the Owings Mills wrestler giving his team a hard fought 39-31 victory over the Rams.

Senior Jake E. Sweitzer earned his 100th career win on Saturday

Next up was the team from Digital Harbor where the result was the same as Wednesday's Allegany match, an 84-0 perfect score.  This match featured 8 pins and six forfeits.  The final match on Friday evening was against Westminster.  Southern scored first period pins in each of the first three bouts to jump out to an 18-0 lead.  The Rams continued to dominate Westminster, winning a total of 11 of the 14 bouts on the way to a 61-13 win.

Senior co-captain Joe Embleton was 6-1

The east coast snowstorm messed up Saturday's schedule as only 5 schools were permitted to return for the second day.  Up first for the Rams was a match with the host school, the Winters Mill Falcons.  Southern took an early lead with pins at 138 and 145 before Winters Mill won the next 5 bouts to take a lead they would never give up.  The Rams battled hard in the remaining matches but ended up falling to the host school by the score of 41-30.

Senior Alec Horner in control vs Westminster

The final two matches of the day were all Southern, a 66-18 win over Northern and a 63-14 win in a rematch with Westminster.  As the dust settled, the Southern Rams won 5 of 7 matches and claimed runner-up honors in the 2017 Grindstone Duals.  Junior Jace Guy was 7-0 with 6 pins and one forfeit and was awarded the outstanding wrestler award for the lower weights.  Sophomore Jake W. Sweitzer was also 7-0 at the Grindstone Duals with 6 pins and a 14-0 major decision.  Senior Jake E. Sweitzer won his 100th career match with a pin over his Northern Garrett opponent on Saturday.

Grindstone Duals runner-up team

Team Scores
Southern Garrett 51 - Paint Branch 22
Owings Mills 39 - Southern Garrett 31
Southern Garrett 84 - Digital Harbor 0
Southern Garrett 61 - Westminster 13
Winters Mill 41 - Southern Garrett 30
Southern Garrett 66 - Northern Garrett 18
Southern Garrett 63 - Westminster 14

Thanks!

Individual Results
7-0 Jake W. Sweitzer (138) 6 pins
7-0 Jace Guy (145) 6 pins (OW)
6-1 Jake E. Sweitzer (126) 4 pins (100th win)
6-1 Joe Embleton (170) 4 pins
6-1 Hunter Park (195) 5 pins
5-2 Brogan Kealy (113) 3 pins
5-2 Joey McComas (120) 3 pins
5-2 Nate Tasker (132) 5 pins
5-2 Alec Horner (160) 4 pins
4-3 Colum McCann (106) 3 pins
4-3 Cole Sweitzer (285) 4 pins
3-4 Declan McCann (152) 3 pins
Other wrestler winning matches: Brad Davis, Kris Tusing, Chris Mersing and Nathan Sweitzer.

Congrats Jake, 100 wins!

Congrats Jace, tournament OW