Oakland Mills completed its return to Howard County wrestling dominance last night at Atholton by easily winning the county tournament championship. It had already won the dual-meet title.
For the Scorpions, who have won 14 of the last 19 county tournaments, it was their first tournament title in three years. They did it with a strong showing in the semifinals when they pushed a 3 1/2 -point quarterfinal lead over runner-up Hammond into a 45 1/2 -point lead heading into the finals.
The Scorpions finished with 218 1/2 points to Hammond's 173 1/2 .
"I was confident going into the semis, and everyone did as much jTC as they could in the semis," first-year Oakland Mills coach Brian Chadwick said. "We got a tech fall and five pins there."
The tournament was marked by one of the biggest upsets in tournament history.
Oakland Mills' Wade Mitchell, who was 25-0 and a two-time defending champ, lost to Centennial's Kevin Heywood, 7-6, at 130. Mitchell was leading 6-2 with 58 seconds left in the third period when he injured his right shoulder.
Heywood caught Mitchell in a split cradle and went up 7-6 with 18 seconds left.
"I got a burst of adrenalin and was looking for any move that could get me points," Heywood said. "Half of my 12 pins this year were on that move."
"He had the upper hand in every way. There was no pressure on me because everyone thought that Mitchell would win."
Only two of Oakland Mills' six finalists won titles -- Chris Naylor at 103 pounds and Choung Nguyen at 119.
Hammond won three championships with Josh Zillmer (135), Hansel Henry (160) and Mike Chang (112). The Bears' defending champ, Jim Weston, lost by 7-5 to Centennial junior Joon Kim at 189 pounds.
Kim had lost to Weston 10-3 earlier this year. "This time instead of shooting I tried to tie him up," Kim (24-1) said. He trailed 1-0 after two periods.
Eric Paskin of Howard won the Glenn DeVane Award as the tournament's most valuable wrestler. He decisioned Casey Moffett of Oakland Mills, 7-2, in the 140 finals. Paskin is 26-1.
At 171, Rick Trott (13-1) won Atholton's only title with a 6-0 decision over Howard's Frank Tortella. Trott had not wrestled in three weeks because of a concussion.
Jeremy Lignelli, at 152, continued to be impressive for Glenelg, winning the only title for the Gladiators. The sophomore won his second straight title and is 26-1 after a 22-3 freshman season.
Junior Matt Sartwell of Howard (145) won a 7-5 decision over Robert Rix of Centennial. Jason Nagle of Centennial won at 125 pounds. And Wilde Lake's Carlo Gerstenfeld won the heavyweight bout over Howard's sophomore Brian Neal, 8-7.
Zillmer, a sophomore, is 13-0 and fought off a shoulder injury to win at 135 pounds. He won his second title with a 5-3 victory over Matt Sutton (21-5) of Oakland Mills.