La Plata’s Blake wins state wrestling title
La Plata’s Blake among SMAC wrestlers to claim state championships
UPPER MARLBORO — Eight wrestlers from the Southern Maryland Athletic Conference entered The Show Place Arena with the chance to realize a goal at the state wrestling tournament on Monday night.
By night’s end, exactly half — Huntingtown’s Tristin Breen and Blake Jury, La Plata’s Alex Blake and Leonardtown’s John Podsednik — had achieved it, leaving the venue as state champions.
It was the first state championship for each of the four, and in the case of Breen, it was his last shot.
The Huntingtown senior left no doubt, dominating the 170-pound field in the Class 4A-3A tournament. He won by fall in the first period in his first two matches of the tournament, by injury default in the semifinals and then took care of Linganore’s Michael Bromley by an 11-3 major decision in the final.
“It’s a really special feeling,” Breen said after finally earning a spot atop the state podium. “I’m really happy. It took me a long time. It’s something I’ve desired to achieve since I was little. I finally got it done after four years of getting close but not sealing it. It feels good.
“I’d never faced [Bromley] before. I wasn’t so much focused on winning the match. I was more focused just on scoring points. That’s one thing [Huntingtown assistant coach Jason] Kiessling has really helped me with this year, my mindset and building my self-confidence.”
Joining Breen in the short list of Huntingtown state champions was Jury, who capped his sophomore year with a 10-1 major decision over North Hagerstown’s Tyler Cook in the 113-pound championshp match. Unlike Breen, Jury was facing an opponent he was quite familiar with, having defeated him in two previous meetings.
“I went home and watched all my videos I had on him,” Jury said of his preparation for the match. With weather altering the schedule of this year’s tournament, wrestlers had two days to prepare for the finals with the semifinals having been contested on Saturday. “I’d wrestled him twice. I saw what he did and saw what I could do. I just went through it all and it really paid off. I just went out there and wrestled hard.”
After his hand was raised, Jury hopped the rail into the stands to share a celebratory embrace with Kevin Gilligan, who had coached him his first year in high school.
“At the beginning of the year, my ex-coach [Kevin Gilligan] asked me right off the bat, ‘What’s your goal,’” Jury said. “There was no hesitation. State champ. Coming here, working, progressing, coming through it all and achieving what I worked for feels great.”
At 152 pounds, Podsednik delivered a state championship
for Leonardtown with a 7-0 decision against Robbie Fleming of Old Mill. The two had squared off in the 4A-3A East Region tournament just a week ago, with Podsednik victorious by a 14-1 count.
“Score first and then just slowly take advantage of the opportunities I had ahead of me,” Podsednik said of his approach to Monday night’s final. “I just tried to take it slow and whenever opportunities were there take advantage.”
While the Leonardtown junior achieved a goal on Monday night, he also stressed that his motivation isn’t solely to win a wrestling match.
“When I step on the mat, win or lose what goes through my head is I’m going to use this match to honor and glorify Jesus,” he said, “the match that really matters in my life.”
In the 2A-1A portion of the state tournament, La Plata junior Alex Blake was the lone champion from Southern Maryland. Blake defeated Camren Ritchey of Mountain Ridge by a 4-1 count, thus concluding the season with a perfect 39-0 mark.
“I’m super-excited. I’ve been dreaming about this for a while,” Blake said prior to the awards ceremony. “I want to thank my coaches and my teammates for helping me train to get to this point. I couldn’t have done it without them.”
Blake was wrestling his first year as a part of the La Plata program after transferring from North Carolina. A year ago, he placed fourth in that state’s tournament.
“It’s feels great,” he said. “I’ve been wanting to win a state title ever since I lost in the semis last year and it feels good to get it done this year.”
For Huntingtown coach Steve Gilligan, Monday night’s action provided a relatively satisfying conclusion to a wildly successful season.
“It was the first time where I’ve been a part of a team where we’ve had multiple kids in the finals,” he said. “We had five placers overall out of 14 kids in the tournament. It was a pretty good weekend. We lost some matches we thought we were going to win, but that’s what the state tournament is. Beat or get beaten. As a team, I thought we came out and wrestled really well, and we did what we needed to do to show the state that we’re on the upper echelon of that now.”
Other SMAC wrestlers reaching the state finals were North Point’s Isaiah Edmond, Huntingtown’s Josh Stokes, Leonardtown’s Alex Green and Northern’s Lance Andriani.
Edmond lost a heartbreaking 3-2 decision to Bowie’s Nathaniel White in the 4A-3A 132-pound final. Stokes came out on the bottom end of a 16-3 decision against Centennial’s Jason Kraisser at 145. Andriani lost 5-0 to Urbana’s Jake Nielson at 160, while Green lost by fall in the third period against Urbana’s Kevin Makosy at 195.
Rounding out the 4A-3A champions were Northwest’s Yonas Harris (106), C. Milton Wright’s James Riveira (120) and Wyatt Graham (220), Linganore’s Earl Blake (126), Churchill’s Jack Connolly (138), South River’s Ka’Ron Lewis (285) and North Hagerstown’s Aaron Brooks (182). With his win, a fall that took just 45 seconds to secure, Brooks won his fourth state championship.
In addition to La Plata’s Blake, champions in the 2A-1A tournament were Alex DuFour (106) and Phil Smith (120) of Owings Mills, Catoctin’s Zach Bryant (113), Johnny McLaughlin (126) and Ryan Lawrence (145) of Damascus, Jared Thomas (132) and Max Sotka (170) of Glenelg, Northern-Garrett’s Jordan Day (152), North Caroline’s Tyler Bauer (160), Patterson Mill’s Hunter Crowley (182), Middletown’s Cam Farrow (195), Boonsboro’s Tristen Cook (220) and Dunbar’s Jorden Pryor (285).
No team trophy
The 2017-18 season was historic for Huntingtown, as the Hurricanes nabbed the program’s first state duals championship, qualified 14 wrestlers for the state tournament and boasted more than one champion at a single state tournament for the first time in program history.
But the Hurricanes couldn’t pull off what many dominant teams in the past had done by winning both state duals and state tournament championships in the same season, as the state ceased keeping team scores at the state tournament this year.
Had scores been kept, Huntingtown would have taken home another state championship trophy. But ultimately it wasn’t anything that seemed to bother any of the Hurricanes too much.
“I don’t really care that much,” Breen said. “It’s nice to know who’s winning the team. It’s fun. I don’t know if it makes teams compete any harder, but it’s definitely fun to see how your team is doing in individual tournaments.”
“Fifty-fifty,” Jury said of his thoughts on it. “Would I have liked to have had it? Of course. Everyone loves a state championship. But it didn’t really bug me too much to the point where it bothered me. I would have liked to have seen where everyone stood.”
And in Gilligan’s eyes the season was a successful one. Another trophy wasn’t going to make it any more so.
“It’s not about the trophies, it’s about the kids and making sure they’re able to succeed,” he said. “Am I disappointed they took it away? I liked it from a competitive standpoint. I assure you we definitely kept score. But the state is going to do what the state wants to do. It would have been nice to win a dual and tournament championship in the same year, but we got one and we’re taking home multiple champions and had multiple placers. I can’t complain. It’s been a wonderful year. Who cares about that trophy? We’ve got enough.”