No. 4 Northeast, a dual-meet loser to No. 2 Old Mill, advanced 10 wrestlers to the semifinals and six to the finals to lead No. 6 Broadneck, 160.5-155, after the first night of wrestling in the Anne Arundel County Tournament last night.
The Patriots with 113.5 points sit in fourth place, trailing No. 12 Arundel, which has 116 points. Reaching the title round were the Eagles' Kusick twins, Marty (112) and Mike (119), who are going for their fourth state titles. Glen Lail (119), sixth-ranked Jay Queer (135), Adrian Spears (189) and Scott Laumann (Hwt.).
Marty, ranked No. 1 in the state, faces Arundel's Phil Schleifer, a 7-3 upset winner over South River's Gene Reid, last year's
103-pound county champ.
Mike has a rematch of last year's county final, which he won, 5-1, over Severna Park's top-ranked Jamie Kuch (19-1, 13 pins). Kuch lost to Mike, 13-4, earlier this year.
Old Mill's state runner-up Nick Basta (140) and second-ranked Don Patterson (189) try for their second straight county crowns, and Mike DiLeonardi (145) aims to improve on last year's runner-up finish against Arundel's sixth-ranked Isaac Haertel (24-1).
Broadneck has Ben Helbig (103), Lonnie Donner (130, 22-2), Rob Peck (152, 9-1), Aaron Lawson (160) and Arto Vartanian (Hwt., 20-2, 18 pins) in the finals.
Arundel's defending county, region and state champ Mark Chesla (152, 23-2), who got his 19th and 20th pins of the year, meets Peck, whose 13-6 semifinal win over Dennis Harris of Meade avenged his only loss.
Southern's top-ranked Tyrone Neal (130, 26-0, 18 pins), a defending county regional and state champ, downed Old Mill's sixth-ranked Paul Hultgren, 7-2, in the semifinals.
In a battle of county champs, Meade's fourth-ranked Adam Butts (171, 25-1), who was at 160 last year, meets Southern's third-ranked Tromaine Graves (25-3), who edged Northeast's sixth-ranked Ron Katzenberger, 1-0, in the semifinals. Katzenberger lost last year's title bout, 10-9, to Butts.
Chesapeake's fourth-ranked Travis Gottlich (103), a regional champ, improved to 25-0 with 15 pins as he attempts to improve on last year's third-place finish.
Lawson had one of two quarterfinal upsets at 160, pinning Chesapeake's No. 2 seed Chad Duncan after leading, 8-0., then winning a 12-10 semifinal over North County's No. 3 seed Joe Key.
Glen Burnie's Dave Smith scored the other 160-pound upset on a buzzer-beating reversal to win, 11-10, over Old Mill's top-seeded Mike Hines, a county champ two years ago.