The second annual state duals tournament gets under way this week, beginning with Wednesday night's regionals at 5:30, and culminating with Friday's state championship at South Carroll.
The finals of all regionals begin at 7:30 p.m.
At Atholton, No. 10 Oakland Mills (15-3) takes on top-seed Damascus, a regional champ and a state duals runner-up in the 1A-2A South Region. Second-seed Lackey of Charles County faces No. 3-seed Central of Prince George's County in the other semifinal.
Damascus, of Montgomery County, is tied for the Maryland State Wrestling Association's No. 1 ranking with Mount St. Joseph, and Lackey is No. 3.
In the tournaments which crown individual champions, Damascus won titles both in the regional and state tournaments last year.
It's a battle of champions, with each team having captured county titles Saturday night.
Four Hornets were Montgomery County champs -- Randy Pickett (130), Bobby Mann (135), Danny Wolford (152) and Tom Horwat (171). Horwat was a state champ last year, Mann was second and Pickett, along with county runner-up Ricky Stott (160), were fourth.
Wolford is ranked No. 3 in the state, and Mann and Stott are ranked second. Lackey has top-ranked Ryan Hersey (152), a state runner-up last year.
The Scorpions' fourth-ranked Wade Mitchell (130) and two-time county runner-up Matt Sutton (135) will have key bouts against ++ Damascus.
Against Damascus, the Scorpions' county champs Chris Naylor (103) and Chong Nguyen (119) should face Brandon York (third county) and Sean O'Neill (fourth state) respectively, and county runner-up Casey Moffett (140) should meet the Hornets' Andy DeVriendt.
Howard County runner-up John Nguyen (125) will meet the Hornets' Nick York (fourth county), who last year lost to his John's brother, Chong, by 9-2.
Winigan's way
To win last week's Friends Tournament, Randallstown's Sean Winigan (119) pinned Owings Mills' sixth-ranked Adam Fink (then 20-2), who led, 8-2, and Dundalk's Travis Williams, who led 10-0.
Grudge matches
In a rematch resembling their past two Maryland Scholastic Athletic Association title bouts, Mount St. Joseph's state champ Danny DeVivo, ranked No. 1 in the state at 160 pounds, bumped up to 171 last Tuesday to defeat McDonogh's No. 2-ranked Martius Harding, 7-4.
The bout was tied at 2 after one period in which DeVivo's early takedown was countered by a late reversal by Harding, who then nearly put DeVivo on his back.
Harding is now 0-5 in high school matches against DeVivo, losing twice by 3-1, once by 3-0, and once by 8-0. Harding's only win came by 2-1 in a 1993 summer freestyle tournament.
In another rematch that night, McDonogh's state champ J. R. Plienis (Hwt.) beat the Gaels' No. 2 Kenny Hunter, 11-6, to improve to 3-0 against Hunter, including a 38-second pin.
A third rematch had Dave Trudil (130) avenging an earlier 7-3 loss against the Gaels' Dan Mattson.
Trudil, who took a 5-0 lead in this match, had lost in an overtime semifinal four days earlier at the Maryland Independent Schools state tournament. Mattson finished second in the states, Trudil was third.