Liberty Captures Second in County Wrestling Meet

Liberty High School took second to Winters Mill in the annual Carroll County wrestling meet Saturday night at Westminster High School.

The Lions had 162 points to Winters Mill's 202.50 points. It was the fourth straight county tournament win for the Falcons. They are the fourth school to win four in a row. The others were Francis Scott Key (1975-1978), Westminster (1979-1982) and North Carroll (1987-1994).

"I feel like we are going in the right direction, trying to peak at the right time. I was very pleased with the guys performance, up and down the lineup. The big thing we tried to emphasize was everybody place top three. So anybody that was in the final that was a bonus and any champions we had, was a bonus. Tony Bassani, that was awesome,’’ said Liberty head coach Mike Flemming.

South Carroll finished fourth and Century, last year’s runner-up was sixth.

South Carroll had four individual champions, while Liberty had two and Century one.

Winning crowns for the Cavaliers were Colin Plumley, Alec Stavish, Willie Reiter and Steven Schmitz.

"To go four for five in the finals is a great thing," said South Carroll coach Bryan Hamper before medals were handed out. "It is really setting the tempo for the post season. We had great individual effort out of all of our finalists. I was really pleased with the way Steven Schmitz, Willie Reiter and Alec Stanish stepped up and then Colin Plumley was a little bit of a different kind of match, but it was a great win. That was one of the deepest weight classes in the county."

Joe Kuegler and Tony Bassani came home winners for Liberty and Brandon Antrobus defended his title at 220 pounds for Century.

Next up for the wrestlers is the region meet and the following weekend is the state meet.

"It really goes to show we are peaking at the right time going into the postseason. We are really excited about what is to come in the next two weeks. We feel like we are going to be there right with the best of them," said Hamper.

Flemming is also think about the next two weeks as he said, "In the regions next week, we have to be top four and the real tournament takes place the week after that. Overall, I was very pleased with everything."

Team Scores

1 Winters Mill 202.50; 2 Liberty 162; 3 North Carroll 146.50; 4 South Carroll 141.50; 5 Manchester Valley 105; 6 Century 99.50; 7 Francis Scott Key 70; 8 Westminster 47.

106-Flavio Valdez Cortez, WM pin Owen Rill, NC, 1:32.

113-Taylor Louge, WM dec. Chris McAleer, MV, 7-0.

120-Johnny Friedel, FSK dec. Ryan Craig, L, 7-6.

126-Joe Kuegler, L dec. Colby Janowitz, MV, 7-5.

132-Colin Plumely, SC pin Casey Shea, L, 1:41.

138-Wes Cook, WM dec. Kyle Tye, C, 4-1.

145-Cody Sharkey, WM dec. Luke Yok, L, 4-2.

152-Alec Stavish, SC dec. Billy Fritz, NC, 7-1.

160-Marshall Chang, WM dec. Jake Pooton, SC, 7-0.

170-Willie Reiter, SC major dec. Tony Craig, L, 14-1.

182-Steven Schmitz, SC dec. Jake Seipp, NC, 18-10.

195-Keegan Farley, NC pin Ryan Hightower, WM, 1:47.

220-Brandon Antrobus, C pin Ben Peters, FSK, 3:55.

285-Tony Bassani, L pin Jake Utz, WM, 3:49.