Sparrows Point captures 3rd straight Baltimore County crown

Sparrows Point crowned four champions and won its third straight Baltimore County Tournament title at Saturday evening’s tournament at Dundalk.

The Pointers won their first county tournament in school history in 2017 and have won five of the past six tournaments.

No. 7 Sparrows Point finished with 220 points, well ahead of second-place Hereford (134.5). Owings Mills (120.5), Perry Hall (115.5,), Woodlawn (99), Eastern Tech (89.5), Dulaney (89), Parkville (86), Milford Mill (84) and Catonsville (70.5) rounded out the top 10.

“We work the kids hard all year, we try to find the toughest tournaments to prepare, I thought we came in extremely prepared and ready to rock and roll,” Sparrows Point coach Mike Whisner said.

The Pointers’ four champions were Christian Manley (112 pounds), Dom Ambrosino (132), Damon Nelson (182) and Hunter Petrovia (285).

Nelson (46-1) had the fastest pin of the night when he stunned Eastern Tech’s Anthony Oge (30-3) in 39 seconds. Petrovia (44-3) had a first-period pin over Parkville’s Simeon Bryant (33-3) and Ambrosino had a third-period pin over Tahikwa Theophile of Overlea. Manley (40-7) won a 21-6 technical fall over Kenwood’s Kelly Bailey.

The win was especially sweet for Ambrosino (45-2) because it was his 100th career victory and he missed the county tournament last year because of a concussion but went on to win regional and state titles.

“I decided to go [132] because I thought

it was unhealthy to go [128], cutting all that weight. I feel a lot better at 32, but this match I didn’t wrestle too well because we didn’t get a warmup and I wasn’t ready for it,” said Ambrosino, who was winning 8-2 when he got the pin with 10 seconds left in the third period.

The senior used a loss in last week’s Class 2A state dual championship as fuel for this tournament. Ambrosino (ranked fifth in the state at 126) lost to Stephen Decatur’s Logan Intrieri (ranked seventh in the state at 138), 11-5.

“For me, that was big motivation because I’m bumping up to [132] to hopefully see Logan Intrieri again,” he said.

— Craig Clary