Prep Wrestling: Sparrows Point Grabs Second at Region Championships

Sparrows Point wrestled to a second-place overall finish in this weekend's 1A/2A North Regional Championship held at Dundalk Friday and Saturday, advancing five grapplers to the state tournament in the process.

Owings Mills won the tournament with 264 points, doubling the 131 points put up by the Pointers.

“I am very excited to finish second. Last year we finished third by half a point,” said Sparrows Point head coach Mike Whisner. "We are happy to have five kids going to states.”

Five Pointer wrestlers advanced to the state championship tournament: Cody Lewis (119), Nathan Borkowicz (152), Mike Iman (171), James Krug (189) and Drew Clark (285).

Krug and Clark each grabbed regional title wins. Lewis wrestled Greg McCoy of Lansdowne in the finals, losing a hard-fought 8-2 decision, and placing second. Iman also took second, losing to Mohammad Ali of Owings Mills.

Borkowicz wrestled to a fourth-place spot.

“It feels great,” said Krug. "This is my first championship.”

Krug, the Pointer sophomore nicknamed Country, defeated Kenny Nunez of Owings Mills 7-1. Krug took advantage of a low single early in the first period to take a 2-0 lead. Nunez scored an escape in that period, his only point of the match. Krug was able to put Nunez on his back twice to stretch his lead to 7-1.

“Country is a battler,” said Whisner of Krug. “I wasn't worried when it was close in the third period because no one is going to out-condition Country.”

Meanwhile, Clark continued his march toward a possible state championship with a 6-0 victory over Darius Carroll of Owings Mills.

Carroll threatened to take Clark down in the first period, but the action carried out of bounds and off the mat. The two mammoth wrestlers battled to a 0-0 tie going into the third period. Clark managed an escape to take a one-point lead, then he took Carroll down and put him on his back.

Clark held the Eagle wrestler on his back throughout the period, but he was unable to get the pin.

“It was a tough match,” said Carroll. “Clark and I are always going at it. I think I'm the first person he hasn't pinned in a while.”

Clark is ranked sixth in the state by the Maryland Wrestling Association and third among 1A/2A heavyweights. He remains determined to add a state championship trophy to his collection.

“I'm still focused on wining states,” said Clark.

Chuck Baugher (125), a Dundalk resident who wrestles at Eastern Tech, also advanced to the state championship with a second-place finish.

Baugher, who recently dropped out of the MSWA rankings after failing to make weight in the Baltimore County Championships, wrestled Adrienne Hazel from Owings Mills, ranked 18th by the MSWA, in the championship match.

“I was one ounce over last week,” said Bauger. “I was really disappointed because 125 was such a strong weight class last week with Matt Swiger (ranked 9th) and Shaun Murphy (ranked 10th ).”

Baugher, who is committed to wrestle at Washington and Jefferson College next season, got great position on a single leg shot early and worked for the entire first period to record the first takedown of the match.

Hazel was able to reverse the hold and tie the score to end the first period. Hazel took Baugher down twice and was able to score back points in the second period. The third period saw Baugher take down Hazel, but he was unable to score again and lost 11-4.

Borkowicz punched his ticket to the state championship tournament when he beat Ryan Davis in the consolation semi-finals. A loss in the consolation finals to Chris Siep of Owings Mills gave him a fourth-place finish.

Pointer Teddy Cadd (135) finished fifth after a loss to Stephen Beam of Eastern Tech and a victory over Nick Watson of New Town. Zach Morton (160) rounded out the Pointer place winners with a sixth-place finish.

No Dundalk High School wrestlers advanced to states. Alfred Martinez (119) took fifth with a win over Dylan Wiley, and Corey Sullivan (189) placed sixth.

Team Scores
1-Owings Mills 264
2-Sparrows Point 131
3-Carver Vo-Tech 101.5
4-Eastern Tech 92.5
5-Lansdowne 92
6-Pikesville 81.5
7-New Town 57.5
8-Edmondson Westside 49
9-Loch Raven 44
10-Overlea 39
11-Forest Park 36
12-Digital Harbor 30
13-Chesapeake-BCounty 27
14-Northwestern-BCity 21.5
15-W.E.B. DuBois 21
16-Carver A&T 20
17-Western STES 19
18-Randallstown 14
19-Dundalk 13
20-City College 11
21-Lake Clifton 7

Championship Finals
103 Antonio Brockington (Carver Vo-Tech) 5-2 Justyn Angelotti (Lansdowne)
112 Warren Mack (Owings Mills) F3:28 Akil Bohanon (Edmondson)
119 Greg McCoy (Lansdowne) 8-2 Cody Lewis (Sparrows Point)
125 Adrienne Hazel (Owings Mills) 11-4 Chuck Baugher (Eastern Tech)
130 Demetrius Johnson (Owings Mills) 7-0 Nick Payne (Lansdowne)
135 Brandon Gibson (Carver Vo-Tech) 7-3 Travon Wright (Pikesville)
140 Tyler Hinton (Carver Vo-Tech) 14-0 Zaza Taruashvili (Owings Mills)
145 Taran Carr (Owings Mills) Won by Forfeit Ilya Usik (Eastern Tech)
152 Kion Wright (Pikesville) 14-2 Malik Jones (New Town)
160 Larry Johnson (Owings Mills) F4:08 Gary Clark (New Town)
171 Mohammad Ali (Owings Mills) F4:42 Mike Iman (Sparrows Point)
189 James Krug (Sparrows Point) 7-1 Kenny Nunez (Owings Mills)
215 Steve Barner (Overlea) F:58 Russell Barnes (Owings Mills)
285 Drew Clark (Sparrows Point) 6-0 Darius Carroll (Owings Mills)

Third/Fourth
103 Jason Escobar (Owings Mills) over Zach Shackelford (Pikesville)
112 Sam Pellerito (Carver A&T) over Paul McBride (Carver Vo-Tech)
119 Shaquille Johnson (Edmondson) over Ogrunseyi Alo (City College)
125 Evan Gill (Randallstown) over Christian Vasquez (Lansdowne)
130 Royal Chruchill (New Town) over Kolton Fodel (Eastern Tech)
135 Stephen Beam (Eastern Tech) over Brandon Hoffman (Owings Mills)
140 Dustin Shackleford (Eastern Tech) over Kyle Beard (Lansdowne)
145- Orr Shimony (Pikesville) over Antonio Harris (Edmondson)
152 Chris Seip (Owings Mills) over Nathan Borkowicz (Sparrows Point)
160 George Crews (Forest Park) over Kris Hinton (Carver Vo-Tech)
171 Tony Sok (Loch Raven) over Nathaniel Gale (Eastern Tech)
189 Deon Hector (W.E.B. Dubois) over Peyton Beechum (Western STES)
215 Melvin Henry (Chesapeake-BCounty) over Ryne Schanberger (Loch Raven)
285 Nick Newcomb (Overlea) over Derrick Jones (Chesapeake-BCounty)

Fifth/Sixth
103 Heman Rai (Digital Harbor) over Ronald Morris (Edmondson)
112 Jumul Noble (Pikesville) over Jamar Beckford (Forest Park)
119 Alfred Martinez (Dundalk) over Dylan Wiley (Western STES)
125 Tony Collurafici (Sparrows Point) over Marcus Whiting (Northwestern)
130 Sorrie Sidibe (Digital Harbor) over Kevin Junior (Forest Park)
135 Teddy Cadd (Sparrows Point) over Nick Watson (New Town)
140 Devontay Thomas (Forest Park) over Malchi Burden (Carver A&T)
145 Richie Rehak (Sparrows Point) dec Derrick Lee (Carver Vo-Tech)
152 Ryan Davis (Loch Raven) over Jesse Bradley (Eastern Tech)
160 Nick White (Loch Raven) over #6 Zach Morton (Sparrows Point)
171 Kevin Pyron (W.E.B. Dubois) over Willie Sloan (Forest Park)
189 Darron Brown (Northwestern-BCity) over Corey Sullivan (Dundalk)
215 Donnelle Allen (Northwestern-BCity) over DeAndre Guess (Digital Harbor)
285 DaJuan Alston (Lansdowne) over Samuel Welk (Lake Clifton)