La Plata won its seventh straight SMAC tournament championship on Saturday night at Leonardtown High. The Warriors, who put 10 wrestlers in the finals and crowned five conference champions, accumulated 280.5 points to outdistance runner-up Chopticon by close to 100.
Daniel Brannon (112 pounds), John Thomas (125), Nick Romero (135), Chase Ursiti (140) and Alex Ingagliato each claimed individual crowns for the Warriors. La Plata placed in the top six in 13 of 14 weight classes to rebound from last week’s loss in the 4A/3A state dual final. A year ago the Warriors went on a tear after coming up short at the state duals, and won the SMAC, regional and state tournaments the following three weeks.
“They wrestled like that the last two days,” La Plata coach Todd Sharp said. “We had a lot of guys step up. Probably part of it was the motivation from the tough loss we took last week.”
Northern crowned three SMAC champions, all at the expense of La Plata. Eric Stubblefield took care of Dylan Dull by tech fall at 103, while Quentin Leadbeter kept his record spotless with a 3-2 decision over Mike Garrow at 119. And in one of the night’s featured attractions, Jeff Williams scored late to slip past Brent Mowry 8-7 in the 152-pound final.
Leonardtown’s Brian Samuels took a 9-8 decision from Huntingtown’s Markus Jarboe at 130, in one of four finals matches decided by a single point. In another, Chopticon’s Vincent Shontere provided one of the night’s upsets with a 4-3 win over Leonardtown’s B.J. Frederick at 145.
North Point’s Anthony Zoscak earned the first SMAC championship in the Eagles’ short history with a 12-4 win over La Plata Mitchell Keith at 189. Patrick Berry provided a championship for Calvert with an 8-4 win over La Plata’s Nick Houser at 160. Randy Farrell delivered for Patuxent with a 12-4 win over Westlake’s C.J. Lawrence at 171, and Aaron Rodenizer brought one home for Great Mills with a first-period pin — the only pin in the finals — in the heavyweight bout.
The 4A/3A South regionals are set for next Friday and Saturday at Eleanor Roosevelt High, while the 2A/1A South will be contested at Oakland Mills High.
Team scores: La Plata 280.5, Chopticon 187, Huntingtown 169.5, Leonardtown 154.5, North Point 146, Patuxent 118, Calvert 111, Westlake 110, Northern 102.5, Great Mills 98.5, Lackey 46, McDonough 46, Thomas Stone 7
Finals
103 Stubblefield (N) 19-4 Dull (LP)
112 Brannon (LP) 5-3 Barrett (Px)
119 Leadbeter (N) 3-2 Garrow (LP)
125 Thomas (LP) 7-2 George (Ht)
130 Samuels (Lt) 9-8 Jarboe (Ht)
135 Romero (LP) 6-1 Schirf (NP)
140 Ursiti (LP) 4-2 Cannon (Ch)
145 Shontere (Ch) 4-3 Frederick (Lt)
152 Williams (N) 8-7 Mowry (LP)
160 Berry (Ca) 8-4 Houser (LP)
171 Farrell (Px) 12-4 Lawrence (W)
189 Zoscak (NP) 12-4 Keith (LP)
215 Ingagliato (LP) 12-3 Morris (Ch)
285 Rodenizer (GM) pinned Newton (Ch), 1:23
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