Cougars get respect; Warriors get titles

Wednesday, Feb. 21, 2007

Cougars get respect; Warriors get titles

by Dan Greenberg | Staff Writer

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Naomi Brookner⁄The Gazette

Sherwood 130-pounder Andy Lowy (back) has had a stranglehold on the county title in recent years. The senior won his third straight Saturday at Blair High, earning a 7-2 decision in the final over Magruder’s Alex Tolbert (front). Lowy was one of three individual champions from Sherwood.

Whether or not Quince Orchard was labeled a second-tier wrestling team this year depends on whom you ask. What is certain is that after two early-season losses, the Cougars were not considered the class of the county.

But now they are.

With two wrestlers securing individual titles in the final five weight classes of last Saturday’s Montgomery County Wrestling Championships, Quince Orchard took home its first county title since 2003, tallying a tournament-high 195 points. Victory was secured when 215-pound sophomore Dake Williams pulled off a surprise pin of Wootton senior Andy Rampp, who had lost only one previous match all season.

Williams wasn’t expected to win the match — as a matter of fact, he wasn’t even supposed to reach the finals. Rampp’s opponent figured to be Josh Fredrick of Damascus. But typical of the Cougars’ performance all day, the second-year wrestler — as described by a vociferous cheering section — simply ‘‘Daked” him.

‘‘First, I went with a roll, and then I just felt his hips were high so he was out of position,” said Williams, whose victory by fall came at the 3:16 stage of the match. ‘‘It’s ... wow. I didn’t think coming into this tournament I’d be able to do this, but now I’m going for states.”

Williams’ pin of Frederick played a big role in the outcome of the team race, allowing the Cougars to edge Damascus (179.0 points), which finished second.

‘‘Dake stepped it up in the finals and wrestled the best I’ve seen in his young two-year career,” Quince Orchard coach Joe Hawkins said. ‘‘We’ve been wrestling tough all year; we’re 20-2. We lost earlier matches to Damascus and Northwest and it just seemed like everybody wrote us off, but we knew at home that we still had a lot of work to do. And it showed today because every individual stepped up. Now we get to enjoy this for a day or two then go back to the office.”

Senior Mike Mascio (160) was amongst those ‘‘step-uppers,” as evidenced by his 5-1 finals victory over Rockville’s Zack Kline. The class was ripe for the taking after the county’s premier wrestler, Whitman’s Eren Civan, suffered a season-ending knee injury in January. It was Civan who congratulated Mascio and all other individual winners on the medal podium after the day’s competition.

While Civan’s injury highlighted a tumultuous season for the Vikings, Whitman’s Will Sharbaugh (119) managed sweet vindication for early-season injuries of his own by defeating Northwest’s Jason Edwards in the finals, 17-9. A reigning regional and state champion, Sharbaugh only wrestled nine matches this season due to a broken ankle and wrist. And though he hasn’t matched his undefeated 37-0 record of a year ago, he was able to earn his second-straight county title.

‘‘I’m still not quite at the level I was last year, but I’m getting up there,” he said. ‘‘This win was a big step in that direction. I’m almost at the top, but in terms of conditioning and making my moves crisp, I’ve got a little more work to do to get back to where I was.”

The second-biggest story of the day was Sherwood, which sent four wrestlers to the tournament’s finals and won three. The winning trio consists of all back-to-back county champions, and were, as often described by opposing coaches, the Warriors dominant middleweights: seniors Andy Lowy (130) and Rhett Beattie (135), and sophomore Steven Gamble (145).

They entered the tournament with just one total loss all season and continued the winning trend. Lowy, a two-time defending state, regional and county champ, ousted Magruder’s Alex Tolbert, 7-2. Beattie came from behind for a gutty, 7-3, victory over Keith Obendorfer of Damascus.

That set the stage for Gamble, who appeared to be cruising in his match until Springbrook’s Carlo Galeano swung the Sherwood star onto his back for a near fall. But Gamble recovered, escaped, and survived for the 8-6 win.

‘‘Carlo’s been one of my toughest opponents — I was trying to go for a big move, trying to do a little hip throw and, unfortunately, he put his hip in too far and overpowered me,” said Gamble of the close call. ‘‘But for all of us to win is great. It’s a big help [in practice] because we push each other, and get each other better and better. I’m bigger, so I help Andy and Rhett with bigger, stronger guys, and they help me with quicker guys.”

Damascus earned two individual titles, with Chance Sellman (103) topping Michael Henning of Northwest, 6-4, and Brian Wittenberger (152) beating Paint Branch’s Tim Stewart, 7-5.

But the Panthers would have celebrations of their own, matching Sherwood with three individual titles. Two of their championships came by fall, with Wilfred Beah (189) dominating Paul Okeyo of Walter Johnson and Steve Miller (140) collecting his 30th victory of the season by pinning Quince Orchard’s Reed Neubaum.

Paint Branch’s 112-pound powerhouse, Danny Lethbridge, remained undefeated on the season after eking past Alex Hakspiel of Sherwood, 6-5. The match was nip and tuck throughout, with Lethbridge taking a 6-5 lead with a minute to go in the third period.

Haskpiel got underneath leverage with 20 seconds to go, but the Panther senior gamely held on, managing to keep his upper body on top until the buzzer sounded.

‘‘I actually like being behind a little bit because in close matches, if I’m behind, I normally wrestle harder,” said Lethbridge. ‘‘I didn’t know how much time was left at the end. I looked up and I saw a blur. I didn’t really see the exact time, yeah, but I knew I needed to just hang on.”

The three champions helped the Panthers finish third in the team race, with 158.0 points.

Individual finals Results

103: Chance Sellman (Damascus) dec. Michael Henning (Northwest), 6-4

112: Dan Lethbridge (Paint Branch) dec. Alex Hakspiel (Sherwood), 6-5

119: Will Sharbaugh (Whitman), m.d. Jason Edwards (Northwest), 17-9

125: Sean McCarty (Northwest) pinned Chase Bernetich (Rockville), 4:41

130: Andy Lowy (Sherwood) dec. Alex Tolbert (Magruder), 7-2

135: Rhett Beattie (Sherwood) dec. Keith Obendorfer (Damascus), 7-3

140: Steve Miller (Paint Branch) pinned Reed Neubaum (Quince Orchard), 2:46

145: Steven Gamble (Sherwood) dec. Carlo Galeano (Springrbook), 8-6

152: Brain Wittenberger (Damascus) dec. Tim Stewart (Paint Branch), 7-5

160: Mike Mascio (Quince Orchard) dec. Zack Kline (Rockville), 5-1