Wrestling: SMAC Preview

By Andy States
Content Manager, SMAC

Expectations may not be the highest for the North Point wrestling team heading into the season. Well, at least the expectations outside the Eagles’ room. Inside the room it’s a different story.

A year ago the Eagles were a middle-of-the-pack SMAC team, finishing seventh in both the conference tournament and regular-season standings. In Tyler Schirf and Danny Dempsey, North Point had its first two SMAC runners-up, at 130 and 145 pounds, respectively, while Dempsey and Anthony Zoscak (189) each qualified for the state tournament. But while the Eagles’ season resume paled in comparison to teams like La Plata, which continued its stranglehold on SMAC and won its second state tournament title in three years, North Point has one advantage nobody else has — it has everybody back.

“We have all our guys coming back,” said North Point coach Rich Pauole of the reason for optimism in the team’s camp with the season’s start still over a week away. “A lot of guys went to camp. We put a lot of guys in summer wrestling this year. We had a lot of competition. We’ve had tons of wrestleoffs already and we still have more to go. I think that’s our biggest demon right now, getting through our wrestleoffs.

“I think we’re going to be strong from top to bottom with a quality kid.”

The next demon will come when the season starts and the team attempts to start the process of ascending towards the top of the SMAC ranks. At the top, La Plata, which has locked down the conference over the past half-decade. In addition to claiming their second state tournament title in the last three years last March, the Warriors won back-to-back state dual crowns the previous two years and have produced four individual state champions in the past three seasons.

But La Plata does not appear on the schedule until late in the season, and before the Eagles can worry about them there’s the task of working through the formidable pack of teams that finished above them last season. That group includes teams like Calvert, Huntingtown and Leonardtown — teams that have consistently put solid lineups on the mat in recent years and figure to do the same this year.

“We’re the underdogs here,” Schirf said. “We’ve got to pull off a couple big wins and surprise some people.”

Added Phillip Meadows: “I think our team is going to do pretty well this year. We’re picking up the pace in practice, wrestling harder. We got a couple freshmen and some veterans coming back. I think we should do good this year.”

But while the team has big goals, it needs to start locally. The Eagles were seventh in the conference last year, and third amongst the Charles County teams behind La Plata and Westlake.

“If you want to get out of the conference and if you even want to go to states, you have to get out of the county first,” Pauole said. “If you get out of the county then the sky’s the limit as far as what can happen in the postseason.

“We have more team-oriented goals. Last year we were right in the middle of the pack. This year we definitely want to be in the top three of the conference, in the upper echelon.”

Around the conference

Jake Shilling and Tanner Shaffer, both now graduated, stood at the top of the podium — the only SMAC state champs last year — in College Park to lead La Plata to last year’s tournament crown. But La Plata still returns five state qualifiers from a season ago, including three state placers in Daniel Brannon (third), Brent Mowry (fourth) and Alex Ingagliato (fifth). La Plata’s dominance was obvious on the conference level, as well, with five SMAC champions and 11 placers at last year’s SMAC tournament.

La Plata has not lost a regular-season dual to a SMAC opponent since the 2003-04 season, and have won two 4A/3A state dual titles and a pair of 4A/3A state tournament crowns over the past three seasons. The Warriors will again enter this year as the decided conference favorite, as well as a leading contender beyond.

Last year’s SMAC runner-up, Westlake, will have to find a way to replace three graduated conference champs in Derek Taylor, Josh Brown and Josh Mommers. Calvert, third a year ago, returns SMAC runners-up in Lucas Hornick and Patrick Berry. Huntingtown could be formidable, as well, with returning state placer Markus Jarboe back in the mix.

Leonardtown has a solid group of veterans back, led by seniors Brian Samuels and Billy Duncanson, as well as juniors B.J. Frederick and Mark Bohanon. The Raiders also have a group including Alan Payne, Jeff Sherman, Eric Bose, Mike Molina and Mark Julian that could help the team continue its push towards the conference’s upper reaches.

Led by Jeff Williams, Quentin Leadbeter and Eric Stubblefield, the Northern Patriots would like to move back into the conference’s upper half. Williams finished second in the state at 140 last year, while Leadbeter placed third at 112. Both were SMAC champs, while Stubblefield qualified for the state tournament. The team mixes that experience with an influx of young wrestlers.

Patuxent, at 3-9 tied for 10th in the conference a year ago, could be poised to make one of the bigger jumps. The Panthers return Andrew Lloyd, state runner-up at 189 in the 2A/1A last year, as well as state qualifiers in Josh Barrett and Randy Farrell. Barrett, who figures to wrestle at 112 this year, was also a runner-up in SMAC at 103 last year. Productive offseason work could lead to impressive seasons for 103-pounder Zach Pilkington and 119-pound Zach Kane, while newcomer Mason Mills, a state placewinner in West Virginia last year, will bolster the Panthers’ effort towards the top at 215.

astates@digitalsports.com