Stags take third at private school championships

Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008

Stags take third at private school championships

by Adam Rubenstein | Staff Writer

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DeMatha High School had four wrestlers make it to the finals in the Maryland Independent Schools State wrestling championships last weekend, but all four settled for second-place finishes. Seniors Matt Dugan (140), Mike Munno (145) and Mike Aguggia (189) and junior Ben Hatef (215) all were runners-up, but will head for the National Preps Tournament this weekend at Lehigh University in Bethelehem, Pa.

Host McDonogh, the top-ranked program in the state by the Maryland State Wrestling Association, easily won the team title for the third consecutive season over runner-up Mount Saint Joseph, 317 points to 220.5. DeMatha was third with 169 points. St. Vincent Pallotti was 13th (57 points) and McNamara was 18th (42.5 points) in the 28-team field.

Fourteen county wrestlers placed in the top six to qualify for National Preps.

DeMatha also qualified sophomores Pat Prada (third at 103) and Toby Onyekweli (fifth at 112), freshman Kyle Hayden (fourth at 125) and junior Chris Miller (sixth at 130).

McNamara’s Andrew Bannister (125) won his third straight state Private Schools title. Mustangs sophomore Aaron Jackson (fifth at 103) also qualified for National Preps. Pallotti freshman John Chenault, who was a runner-up at the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association championships a week earlier, placed fourth at 112. Pallotti junior Nate Tharp was sixth at 112.

Princeton Claremont junior Josh Bressler, who lost to Dugan in the semifinals, finished third. Bressler’s teammate, David Putnam, was fifth at 135.

‘‘Third at states is not a bad deal for us,” said DeMatha coach Dick Messier. ‘‘We would never have caught Mount St. Joe’s for second, but there is no way when you have four in the finals that you should not come away with one or two champions.”

Aguggia suffered a mild concussion in the semifinals against John Carroll’s Ethan Reese. Aguggia finished the match and won it in overtime. But in the final, against top-ranked Alex Pagnotta of McDonogh, Messier stopped the match in the second period with Pagnotta leading 5-2 when Aguggia began feeling wobbly.

‘‘We didn’t want him to forfeit the match [before it started], but if it got to the point where it looked like he was having difficulty out there, we weren’t going to chance anything,” said Messier. ‘‘We want him to be ready to wrestle at Preps.”

Dugan, No. 3 in the state, met McDonogh’s Josh Fitch, ranked No. 1 in the state. Fitch won a 9-0 major decision. Munno dropped a 5-2 decision to McDonogh’s Curtis Holmes, the state’s top-ranked private school wrestler at 145. Hatef faced top-ranked Chance Gaffney of Georgetown Prep and lost a 5-3 decision.

E-mail Adam Rubenstein at arubenstein@gazette.net.