The Southern Rams entered this weekend's Grindstone Duals wrestling tournament with a score to settle. Last season, we dropped two close matches to finish the tournament in second place. The losses were to perennially tough Owings Mills and Winters Mill, both 2A schools with long histories of state championship success. This date was circled on our schedule early as a focal point to gauge our standing in the hierarchy of wrestling in the state of Maryland.
The first match on Friday evening was against Broadneck High School. The match started at 106 and the Rams started winning early and never looked back. The top bout of this dual was a sudden death victory for Hunter Park over Broadneck's team captain and top wrestler. Southern won the match 64-8 for the first win of the tournament.
Next up for the Rams was cross county rival Northern Garrett. This match started at 113 with the big match up between Southern freshman Aiden Schwab and Northern's Shane Fink. Schwab got the upper hand in this match to score the first points for his team. The Rams kept winning and pinning and ended up with a 50-17 victory over the Huskies to move to 2-0 for the tournament.
In the third round, we were finally facing Owings Mills. They featured two returning state champions and six wrestlers who are ranked in the official state rankings. Sophomore Brogan Kealy squared off against state champ Alex Dufour. Kealy wrestled a tough six minutes and dropped an 8-3 decision. Jake Sweitzer drew the other state champ and also battled his opponent for nearly six hard minutes. In the end, the Southern wrestlers won 8 of 14 bouts to score a decisive 45-27 victory over Owings Mills to end Friday night's action at 3-0.
On Saturday morning, our first match was against the team from the Maryland School of the Deaf who were depleted by sickness and injury. Southern received several forfeits and scored three pins on the way to a 72-12 win.
In round five, Winters Mill only wrestled a few of their starters and Southern dominated the match from beginning to end to score a 63-15 victory to bring the tournament record to 5-0. The win set up the showdown with Leonardtown with their own set of state champions and state ranked wrestlers.
The battle for the tournament championship was tight throughout and was filled with exciting matches and tough wrestling. The two top bouts were at 126 and 152 with some of the top wrestlers in the state going head to head. At 126, sophomore Brogan Kealy drew his second state champ of the weekend and again wrestled a tough six minutes. In the end, Vosburgh won a brutal 12-9 decision but Kealy earned his place as a state contender this season. At 152, senior Jace Guy fell behind early and battled back for the win against Trevor Crowley who was ranked 5th in the state. In the end, the Rams came out on top 39-36 to come one step closer to the tournament championship.
In the final match of the weekend, the Rams dominated Westminster 57-24 to claim the Grindstone Tournament championship.
Individual Results
7-0 - Cole Sweitzer - 285 - (6 pins)
7-0 - Jace Guy - 152 - (4 pins)
7-0 - Hunter Park - 220 - (4 pins)
7-0 - Aiden Schwab - 113 - (2 pins)
6-1 - Colum McCann - 120 -(5 pins)
6-1 - Jake Sweitzer - 145 - (3 pins)
5-2 - Cameron Glover - 195 - (4 pins)
5-2 - Brogan Kealy - 126 - (2 pins)
5-2 - Declan McCann - 160 - (2 pins)
5-2 - Hunter Sanders - 170 - (3 pins)
5-2 - Nate Tasker - 132 - (2 pins)
3-4 - Jeremiah Mellinger - 106 - (2 pins)
1-6 - Elisha Skipper - 138 - (1 pin)
1-6 - Nathan Sweitzer - 182 - (1 pin)
Team Scores
Southern 64 - Broadneck 8
Southern 50 - Northern 17
Southern 45 - Owings Mills 27
Southern 72 - Maryland School of the Deaf 12
Southern 63 - Winters Mill 15
Southern 39 - Leonardtown 36
Southern 57 - Westminster 24
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