Soaring!

Nate Tasker wins again

The Urbana Hawks made the trip to Oakland last Thursday evening for a huge dual meet with post-season implications.  It is early in the dual meet season, but every match and every win counts and we knew in advance this would be a highly contested event.  Urbana has six ranked wrestlers on their squad and were full of good athletes and solid wrestlers.  We had our work cut out for us, but we were up for the challenge.

Big pin for senior Erik Fike

The match started at 120 and saw the return of our unbeaten freshman Jake W Sweitzer who missed the Musselman Duals with an injury.  Sweitzer came back strong, scoring a second period pin to get the Rams on the board first 6-0.  Next up was Jake E Sweitzer in a battle against one of Urbana's top wrestlers.  The Hawks got on the board by winning a decision to tighten the score 6-3.

At 132, Nate Tasker ground out a 6-1 decision and at 138, Erik Fike scored a first period fall to stretch Southern's lead to 15-3 as we moved into to meat of Urbana's lineup.  Co-captain Jimmy Schwab dropped a decision at 145 as did sophomore Jace Guy at 152.  The Hawks scored a fall at 160 and suddenly, the match was tied at 15.

Joe Embleton won by decision at 170 and Urbana won by pin at 182 and 195 and we found ourselves trailing the Hawks 27-18.  It was not long before the Rams were back on top as Scotty Tichnell and Cole Sweitzer took a little over 3 minutes to each score pins to put Southern back in the lead at 30-27.

Scotty Tichnell going for the cradle and the pin

As we moved to the lower weights, the match hung in the balance when Evan Paugh took the mat at 106.  He fought hard for nearly 6 minutes before losing by fall with only seconds remaining.  The final match of the evening was set and Urbana held a slim 33-30 lead with our undefeated senior Brison Dixon set to take the mat.  Within seconds, Dixon scored the takedown and went in to finish things off.   Using a beautiful "banana-split", he scored the fall to remain unbeaten and to clinch the victory for the Rams. 

The win moves our record to 16-3 on the season and we have a tri-match tomorrow searching for two more wins against the Oakdale and Keyser.  Wrestling begins at 1pm.

Cole Sweitzer shoots the half

Southern Garrett 36 - Urbana 33

120 - Jake W Sweitzer (SG)  pins Michael Thaden (U)  3:30
126 - Cody Swigart (U) dec. Jake E Sweitzer (SG) 9-3
132 - Nate Tasker (SG) dec. Jon Song (U) 6-1
138 - Erik Fike (SG) pins Greg Gerber (U) :49
145 - Logan Arneson (U) dec Jimmy Schwab (SG) 6-4
152 - Shane Acton (U) dec. Jace Guy (SG) 7-0
160 - Jake Makosy (U) pins Alec Horner (SG) 3:37
170 - Joe Embleton (SG) dec. Mason Newton (U) 7-1
182 - Jake Nielson (U) pins Patrick Duggan (SG) 3:24
195 - Kevin Makosy (U) pins Gunnar Ward (SG) :31
220 - Scotty Tichnell (SG) pins John Edmunds (U) 1:04
285 - Cole Sweitzer (SG) pins Austin Geisler (U) 2:10
106 - Cole Jacobs (U) pins Evan Paugh (SG) 5:56
113 - Brison Dixon (SG) pins Colby Barton (U) :41

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

The Grind

The Southern Rams took the mats this weekend at the 2nd annual Grindstone Duals at Winters Mill High School in Westminster, MD.  When the dust settled on Saturday evening, the results were very similar to last season.  The Rams went 6-2 on the weekend, finished in 3rd place and were involved in a number of tight, exciting matches.

The first match on Friday afternoon was against Paint Branch High School in a rematch from one of the closest and most exciting contests from last year's tournament.  In 2015, everything came down to the end where the Rams pulled off a 37-34 victory.  This year's match was similar, hard-fought tough bouts and the outcome was not determined until the end where Southern ended up losing by a single point, 37-36.

After an 82-0 rout of Digital Harbor, we were set to face the defending champions from Leonardtown, Maryland.  This season's squad was just as tough as the 2015 team and they were just too much for us to handle in the final match of the evening.  The final score was Leonardtown 49 - Southern 28.

Joe Embleton scoring one of his 6 pins

There were five matches on the schedule for Saturday with the first against the host school, Winters Mill HS.  We had been looking forward to this rematch for an entire year after the Falcons upset us in last year's tournament.  We came out hot and made sure that there would be no upsets this season.  We quickly built a 27-3 lead and never looked back, dominating Winters Mill by the final score of 42-24. 

Up next for the Rams was last season's second place team, the Westminster Owls.  After our big win against Winters Mill, we started out flat and found ourselves down big, 36-9 with 5 bouts remaining.  We regrouped and did the math; we needed 4 pins and a major decision to pull off the bug comeback.  Evan Paugh, Brison Dixon and both Jake Sweitzers got us the 4 pins to bring the team score to 36-33 with only Nate Tasker's match remaining.  A regular decision would have tied the score but we needed bonus points to win the dual.  Nate worked hard from the beginning and ran the score up to 10-0 to clinch the victory for Southern.

Freshman Jake W Sweitzer is still unbeaten

Our sixth dual of the weekend was against Owings Mills and would also turn out to be a barn-burner.  The team score went back and forth with neither team leading by more than 5 points throughout.  As we reached the final bout, we held a 33-28 margin with Erik Fike taking the mat at 138.  He quickly found himself down 8-0 in the first period, but took control early in the second period and scored the fall to clinch the victory for the Rams, 39-28.

The final two matches of the tournament were less competitive.  We defeated Chesapeake 66-9 and finally Lackey 70-12 to close out our 6-2 weekend.

Individual Results

8-0  Brison Dixon (6 Pins)

8-0  Jake W Sweitzer (6 Pins)

7-1  Joe Embleton (6 Pins)

7-1  Jake E Sweitzer (2 Pins)

7-1  Nate Tasker (2 Pins)

5-3  Jace Guy (4 Pins)

5-3  Erik Fike (3 Pins)

5-3  Scotty Tichnell (3 Pins)

5-3  Cole Sweitzer (3 Pins)

4-4  Evan Paugh (3 Pins)

4-4  Alec Horner (3 Pins)

3-5  Patrick Duggan (1 Pin)

1-2  Brad Davis (1 Pin)

1-2  Jimmy Schwab

1-5  Nathan Sweitzer

0-1  Cole Baker

Big Cole with 5 wins this weekend

Team Results

Paint Branch 37 - Southern 36

Southern 82 - Digital Harbor 0

Leonardtown 49 - Southern 28

Southern 42 - Winters Mill 24

Southern 37 - Westminster 36

Southern 39 - Owings Mills 28

Southern 66 - Chesapeake 9

Southern 70 - Lackey 12