This Saturday had a much different feel from last. A week ago, C. Milton Wright wrestling was stunned in a state semifinal loss that sent the Mustangs home earlier than anticipated.
Seven days later, they’re leaving the weekend champions.
C. Milton Wright won the Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference wrestling tournament Saturday at Edgewood with a team score of 239 — a startling 68 points ahead of second-place Harford Tech (171). Rising Sun (153.5), Aberdeen (135.5) and Havre de Grace (134) rounded out the top five teams. Three C. Milton Wright wrestlers (Rory Sweeney, 106; Kane Desch, 120; Aaron Moccia, 175) claimed titles in their respective weight classes, and four more reached their championship matches.
For coach John Thornton, Saturday’s win in C. Milton Wright’s last event as a team this season is a consolation for coming up short last weekend.
“A lot better,” the coach quipped through a grin, moments after stepping off the podium where he posed for photos with his team. “I told them, ‘Get the next best thing.’ This is the next best thing we could get. One more chance to make it right as a team.”
Anticipating his group needing time to recalibrate after the defeat, the coach gave his team the option of taking President’s Day off — teams can’t officially practice together on holidays but can get together on their own off school grounds. Every Mustangs wrestler refused the break and was on board with getting right back on the mat just two days after the loss. Practices this week were as intense and energetic as Thornton’s seen all season.
C. Milton Wright trailed Harford Tech after Friday’s matches, which prompted an impassioned message from the coach to wrestle looser Saturday and prevent pressure of expectations from obstructing the ultimate goal. “You’ve prepared for this all year. Now’s the time to cash in,” Thornton said Friday night.
The Mustangs responded by climbing back with impressive results in the semifinals and ran away with the event by Saturday afternoon.
“They were definitely a little broken up about it,” Moccia said. “The coaches are proud of how far we went. [Thornton] wanted all the effort. I feel like he does think of it as a little bit of a consolation.”
Harford Tech finishes second to cap impressive campaign
Like the Mustangs, Harford Tech also fell in the state semifinals a week ago. And similar to them, the Cobras used it as motivation.
They were led Saturday by Zaden Tablan, who took first in the 113-pound match over C. Milton Wright’s Sean Downey. The senior placed third in his weight class last season, then spent his offseason training to improve upon that finish. He feels in the past that he entered each match with jitters that limited his attentiveness, but learned how to wrestle more free this year to punctuate a stellar final season.
Tablan was one of two Harford Tech wrestlers to capture conference titles Saturday (Nikolai Chervak, 144) and one of nine Cobras to place top six in their respective weight classes. Only C. Milton Wright posted more top-six finishes.
“This was my last year to show everybody that I’m a champ,” Tablan said. “It was a lot of stuff weighing on my shoulders. There was a lot to prove this year.
“I’m really grateful for my teammates,” he added. “We’re a family. We’re all together, and that’s what I love about being at Harford Tech.”
Other winners in the co-ed division included Aberdeen’s Edward Caldwell (138), Liam Peterson (150) and Chase Lineberry (157), Patterson Mill’s Cole Christian (132), North Harford’s Andrew Coakley (190) and Bel Air’s Owen Reilly (285).
Girls division sees continued growth
This conference tournament crowned 10 girls champions last season, the first time the UCBAC championships featured a girls-only bracket. This year, that number grew to 14, and each weight class had at least two wrestlers competing and some had enough for semifinal and third-place matches. It marked the latest sign of growth for a sport on a sharp upward trajectory.
Patterson Mill’s Kylie Buehler wrestles with ADHD, making good-intentioned coaches who scream directions from her corner deafeningly distracting. So she tunes them out, asking them not to bark orders unless she flashes a distress signal.
Her mind was blank when she pinned Samantha Keithley of Harford Tech to win the 130-pound bout, one of two Huskies girls to win in their respective weight classes (Sarah Alkhatib, 110).
Buehler spent time in Pennsylvania growing up and wrestled there, but said her experiences there versus in the UCBAC are wildly different.
“It was horrible. We didn’t have a team, so we were all with the boys and all the girls were on JV,” Buehler said. “I feel like we actually have more support now.”
Other local girls winners included Havre de Grace’s Isabella Olivas (105) and Kayla Ward (140), Edgewood’s Triniti Green (125) and Makayla Cole (235), Harford Tech’s Isabella Olivas (135) and Nicole Filip (190), North Harford’s Bryn Cespedes (100) and Jordan Lawson (170) and Perryville’s Saphira Hamill (120).
The results from girls matches weren’t included in the overall team scores, but coaches hope if current growth continues there will be girls teams champions in addition to the co-ed division in the coming years. Girls wrestling participation has more than doubled nationally over the last half decade, and Harford County is at the forefront of that charge in Maryland.
Have a news tip? Contact Taylor Lyons at tlyons@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/TaylorJLyons.
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