Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2007

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again

After county upset, Damascus wins regionals

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Charles E. Shoemaker⁄The Gazette
Springbrook’s Carlo Galeano (left) and Sherwood’s Steven Gamble went to overtime to decide the 145-pound regional title Saturday at Sherwood. Gamble scored a takedown to edge Galeano, 3-1.
The Montgomery County championships two weekends ago were not a particularly happy time for the Damascus wrestling family. Despite actually earning one more individual title than they would this past Saturday, the Swarmin’ Hornets did not get enough performances in several other weight classes, and fell to tournament winner Quince Orchard.

Luckily, they got another crack at a back-to-back championship just a week later at the 4A-3A West Region tournament. And though 103-pounder Chance Sellman claimed the only top solo honors for Damascus, it was enough to propel the squad to 144.5 points and a relatively easy victory over second-place Northwest (128) and third-place Paint Branch (120.5).

‘‘The parents and everybody, we have a little get-together after the tournaments and what a somber time that was last week — but I think it’ll be a little more jovial this time around,” said Damascus coach Dave Hopkins. ‘‘You know, it’s tough when you lose the close matches, and you put five in the finals and only come away with one [winner]. But there were a lot of great matches tonight, I’m very proud of the team, and everyone showed up to wrestle all week. Now we’ve got to get them to do it one more week. This is the big one.”

Hopkins is talking about the state championships, the crème de la crème of Maryland high school wrestling, which will be held this weekend at the University of Maryland’s Cole Field House. The Hornets stand a fair chance of picking up their first state title since 1999, and fourth overall, thanks to a whopping eight individuals they will send to the event — Sellman, Eddie Obendorfer (119), Brian Wilkerson (125), Shane Boyd (130), Keith Obendorfer (135), Brian Wittenburger (152), Ben Minturn (171) and Josh Frederick (215).

Sellman has been the most accomplished this year, and picked up the Hornets’ lone top spot on the winners podium Saturday. Just a freshman, he earned a tough, 6-4 victory over Michael Henning of Northwest to earn the county championship a week ago.

He did even better in a rematch on Saturday. Late in the first period, he pulled a risky move, going to his back to slam down Henning before pouncing on top and getting a pin, one minute, 38 seconds into the match.

‘‘I took him down, then he sat back up too far and it was perfect,” Sellman said. ‘‘He was leaning too far [one] way so I just pulled him back in and sat out, and pinned him. It was nice.”

Paint Branch was the next biggest story of the day, sending four wrestlers to title matches and winning all four. The Panther’s run started at 112 pounds when undefeated Danny Lethbridge technically took apart Pant Landon of Bethesda-Chevy Chase, 6-4. Tim Stewart (152) avenged his defeat a week earlier to Wittenburger by turning him over 41 seconds into overtime for a 7-5 victory.

Two other repeat winners from a week ago were Wilfred Beah (189), who struggled but hung on for a 5-3 win over Northwest’s John Page, and well as Steven Miller (140). The junior won his championship by fall for the second straight week, pinning Stephen Norcio of Magruder 2:52 into the action.

‘‘It’s been just a good all-around year,” said Miller, who finished 26-1 on the regular season before picking up his postseason titles. ‘‘I won county and region last year as a sophomore. But I mean, my goal’s always been to win the state title. See if I can get one this year.”

Falling under the category of ‘‘ho-hum, been-there-done-that” was the well-known trio of Sherwood middleweights that duplicated their winning efforts last week in earning a trio of regional titles. The only thing possibly surprising was the dramatic fashion in which they won them, at least for the latter two.

Warriors senior Andy Lowy (130) has arguably been the most dominant of Sherwood’s three all year as well as for his career, as evidenced by the Richard J. Monisera Award he was given a week ago (given to the county’s senior who has scored the most points during his career).

While Alex Tolbert of Magruder gave him his stiffest test last week, Lowy picked up a 9-0 win Saturday. He remains unbeaten for the second straight year and a regional winner for the third time, with a chance for a third-straight state title this weekend.

‘‘I’m trying to focus on enjoying these matches, but I need to make sure to go out and get the job done,” Lowy said. ‘‘I know I’m expected to win and I can kind of take my time to enjoy it a little bit, but I just want to make sure I wrestle well. To me it doesn’t really matter whether I pin everyone I wrestle or win by one point. I just don’t want to cruise, though if I do my best, I feel I should dominate everyone.”

He was the only Warrior to dominate on Saturday, as Sherwood’s other two stalwarts overcame much tougher obstacles. Sophomore Steven Gamble (145) squeaked by Springbrook’s Carlo Galeano for the third time this year. They went to overtime tied at one, and both nearly scored twice in the final session before Gamble finally scored a two-point takedown.

But the match of the day was at 135 pounds, where senior Rhett Beattie came back from a two-point deficit with just 19 seconds left in the match to overcome Damascus’ Keith Obendorfer. The Hornet senior led, 2-0, in the late stages when he picked up a one-point, false start penalty for his third such offense. Beattie, from the bottom position in the match’s final moments, fought wildly before escaping Obendorfer’s grip and reversing with just four seconds to go.

‘‘Odendorfer’s a tough kid, he’s wrestled for a long time — I guess I was fired up to get out of there to try and make it to overtime, but as soon as I saw him get that one-point caution I had a [chance],” Beattie said. ‘‘I stood up and switched, and he countered throughout our match. And with 10 seconds left, I just started kicking, kicked up in the air, twizzled my hips, stepping over, stepping over, grabbed, turned over, hoped I came out on top and I did.”

While Sherwood’s successes may be taken for granted, Andy Rampp’s (215) of Wootton certainly cannot be. The diesel-built senior won the Patriots’ first regional title since 1992, outclassing Damascus’ Frederick, 8-1.

His victory was a fitting addition to Wootton’s best season in 20 years, as the Patriots went 13-1. But it was more than just the win that was so satisfying for the Rampp, it was the perfect avenging. Last week, he was pinned by Quince Orchard’s Dake Williams in the county finals. He didn’t like that feeling, and spent all week reminding himself of it to pump himself up.

It worked.

‘‘You know, last week was a wake-up call,” said Rampp. ‘‘There was an article in The Gazette, one that said ‘QO respect” and it was big and had a big picture of me, but the article right next to it was titled like, ‘For once, Wootton’s on top,’ [a girl’s basketball article entitled ‘For the first time in a long time, Wootton is No. 1’]. So, I cut that out and put it on my bathroom mirror.”

Whitman’s Will Sharbaugh (119), Northwest’s Sean McCarty (125), Quince Orchard’s Mike Mascio (160), Wheaton’s Dave Foreman (171) and Magruder’s Tyler Murray (285) rounded out the tournament’s victors.

4A-3A Statequalifiers

By weight class, in order of finish at regionals

103 pounds

Chance Sellman (Damascus)

Michael Henning (Northwest)

Rasheim Smith (Blake)

Davish Chasker (Magruder)

112 pounds

Danny Lethbridge (Paint Branch)

Pat Landon (B-CC)

Helen Maroulis (Magruder)

Brian Hines (Seneca Valley)

119 pounds

Will Sharbaugh (Whitman)

Jason Edwards (Northwest)

Eddie Obendorfer (Damascus)

Josh Haffner (Churchill)

125 pounds

Sean McCarty (Northwest)

Brian Wilkerson (Damascus)

Jorge Alcoba (Springbrook)

Spencer Neubaum (Quince Orchard)

130 pounds

Andy Lowy (Sherwood)

Alex Tolbert (Magruder)

Robert Dudley (Quince Orchard)

Shane Boyd (Damascus)

135 pounds

Rhett Beattie (Sherwood)

Keith Obendorfer (Damascus)

Allen Blanks (Watkins Mill)

Haben Ghebremeschel (Blair)

140 pounds

Steven Miller (Paint Branch)

Stephen Norcio (Magruder)

Stephen Addis (Northwest)

Joffrey Alcidor (Springbrook)

145 pounds

Steven Gamble (Sherwood)

Carlo Galeano (Springbrook)

Chris Ralli (Magruder)

Brian Swim (Richard Montgomery)

152 pounds

Tim Stewart (Paint Branch)

Brian Wittenburger (Damascus)

Taylor Leighton (Whitman)

Jake Cone (Northwest)

160 pounds

Mike Mascio (Quince Orchard)

Jordan Dow (Springbrook)

Paul Schoonmaker (Northwest)

Aaron Norris (Whitman)

171 pounds

Dave Foreman (Wheaton)

Nadjitade Badje (Springbrook)

Andrew Hubert (Gaithersburg)

Ben Minturn (Damascus)

189 pounds

Wilfred Beah (Paint Branch)

John Page (Northwest)

Mike Tobin (Wootton)

Brian Crippen (Quince Orchard)

215 pounds

Andy Rampp (Wootton)

Josh Frederick (Damascus)

Dake Williams (Quince Orchard)

Banjo Obayomi (Churchill)

285 pounds

Tyler Murray (Magruder)

Jeff Hernandez (Kennedy)

Terrance Stephens (Quince Orchard)

Ben Luke (Seneca Valley)

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