Eight reach semis at state tourney
It was a bit of a mixed bag for SMAC wrestlers on Friday at the first day of the state wrestling tournament at Cole Field House in College Park, but eight wrestlers from the conference advanced to wrestle in the semifinals between the 4A-3A and 2A-1A tournaments. Team-wise, La Plata, Northern and Leonardtown were hanging inside the top 10, while Howard County’s Reservoir Gators enjoyed a successful first day to jump out to an early lead. Reservoir ended the first day with 51 points, 10 ahead of second-place Urbana. La Plata will enter the final day of the tournament in third place with 39 points. With 26 points, Northern sits in seventh, while Leonardtown’s 23 points have the Raiders tied for 10th.
Semifinalists from SMAC include freshmen Brant Leadbeter (103 pounds) and Eric Hoffman (140) of Northern. Hoffman will wrestle Old Mill’s Ron Vaughters in a long-anticipated match in the semifinals. Also reaching the semifinals at 140 was Nick Romero of La Plata, runner-up to Hoffman the past two weeks at the SMAC and 4A-3A South tourneys.
La Plata’s Connar Zimmerman and Leonardtown’s B.J. Frederick, who engaged in a decent rivalry during the season with Zimmerman earning narrow decisions the past two weeks, both qualified for the semifinals at 145.
Leonardtown’s Martez Allen put together a couple of solid matches to earn the conference’s long semifinal berth at 152 pounds, while Huntingtown’s Hunter Rowe hopes to become the second state champion in his school’s history and reached the semis at 160 where he will face Zeke Gammill of Damascus to open his day tomorrow.
Wrestling in the 2A-1A tourney, Patuxent’s Zach Pilkington reached the 103-pound semifinals.
Action tomorrow is scheduled to begin at 9:30 a.m., with the semifinals pegged for an 11 a.m. start.
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