North Harford senior Mike Liptrap wasn't going to let some hyper-extended muscles in his midsection destroy his final opportunity to become a Harford County wrestling champion.
So, there he was yesterday, on the mats in Pylesville, ignoring the pain and using every available second of injury time to keep his championship dreams alive.
Liptrap, who suffered his injury while battling his best friend and former teammate, Corey Pascuzzi, in a match Wednesday, advanced in yesterday's quarterfinals of the 26th annual Harford County Wrestling Championships at North Harford by scoring a technical fall against Edgewood's Joe Bunker.
Liptrap and 51 other county wrestlers will compete again at 2 p.m. today with the hope of becoming one of the 13 county champs.
"The emergency room doctor at Harford Memorial told me to take off a week and a half off, but I went to my family doctor and got a second opinion because I really wanted to wrestle in the county tournament," said Liptrap, a 119-pounder.
"When I was being carried off on a stretcher that night, I really thought I was done for the season. I was hurting a lot tonight, but it would take me a lot more than that for me to quit. I want to win a county championship and I don't want an injury to stop me."
If Liptrap can get past C. Milton Wright's Mike Reilly in today's semifinal round, he might get another shot at Pascuzzi, who now wrestles for Aberdeen.
Team scores were not available because of a computer glitch, but Aberdeen appeared to be on its way to its 11th straight county team title and 17th overall.
All seven of the defending county champions and C. Milton Wright junior David Smith, who was county champ at 103 pounds two years ago, kept their chances for another title alive with first-round victories.
Pascuzzi, who won his first county title last year competing for Havre de Grace, advanced forfeit in the 119-pound bracket while teammate and DeWayne Whitley (152) kept his repeat hopes intact by pinning Wright's Brian Rumbley in 91 seconds.
Aberdeen senior Kit Doran, who is going for his third straight title after winning at 140 as a junior and 152 last season, enjoyed a first-round bye in the 160-pound weight class. Doran (24-0) will meet Mike Brozic of C.M. Wright in the semis.
North Harford Paul Konschak increased his record to 20-0 and put himself in position to repeat as the county's 171-pound champion by pinning Edgewood's Greg Cherry in 37 seconds.
The other defending champions who advanced include North Harford's Tom Staab ( 189), Bel Air's Bryan Stewart (140), Joppatowne's Travis Volmar (145) and Wright's David Schmidt (135).
Bel Air's top-seeded Matt Birth (19-2) pinned Edgewood's Jeremy Smith in a 130-pound bout and will meet Glenn Folck of North Harford, a 5-4 winner over Wright's Jason Lentz, in this afternoon's semifinal round.