Meade's winning of the George Roberts sportsmanship award at the county tournament over the weekend was well-earned by first-year coach Scott Jacoby.
Jacoby's Mustangs crowned a county champ, Detric Tyus (160), whom Jacoby recruited from the hallways, and had a runner-up in fourth-ranked Adam Butts (171) -- last year's 160-pound county champ.
In addition, the Mustangs (5-6, county, 6-8 overall) had their best season in years. "They won a match last year because Queen Anne's had six forfeits. Before that, they were 0-14 three straight years," Jacoby said.
State duals
66TC
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.
Mervo (10-2), the No. 3 seed in the 3A-4A East Region at Arundel High, puts its 10-match winning streak on the line against No. 2 seed and regional runner-up Broadneck (14-2), ranked No. 6 in the area. Region champ and state runner-up Old Mill (16-1), ranked No. 4, faces No. 11 Arundel in the other semifinal.
At Kent County High School, host Kent is the No. 3 seed and takes on defending 1A-2A East Region champ Rising Sun. Top seed Northeast (13-1), ranked No. 3 in the area and No. 6 in the state, faces Cambridge-South Dorchester.
Northeast's Kusick twins, Marty (112) and Mike (119-125), are ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, in the state. The Eagles' Jay Queer (135) is ranked No. 6. All three earned county titles Saturday night.
Rising Sun is led by top-ranked Bruce Knisely (189), a state runner-up last year.
Old Mill has county champs in No. 2-ranked Don Patterson (189, 23-2), Nick Basta (140) and Mike DiLeonardi (145) and third-place finishers Larry Webster (152), Mike Hines (160) and Paul Hultgren (130), who is No. 6 in the state.
Old Mill's fourth-place finishers were Eric Donoway (171) and Gary Serago (135).
Arundel crowned Mark Chesla (152, 24-2, 21 pins) for the second straight year, and Old Mill transfer Phil Schleifer (112, 13-2), Isaac Haertel (145, 24-2) and Tim Kelly (135) were runners-up. Chad Webber (119) was third for Arundel, and Vince Fauntleroy (189) and Bobby Kilby (Hwt.) were fourth.
Barring lineup changes, the Old Mill-Arundel contest could feature six rematches from the county tournament.
For Old Mill, Hultgren pinned Graham Harris, Donoway shut down Rod Taylor, 8-0, Hines beat Wayne Degan, 8-0, and DiLeonardi edged Haertel, 7-4. For Arundel, Kilby pinned Chris Riggin and Kelly beat Serago, 9-4.
Broadneck has county champ Arto Vartanian (Hwt., 22-2, 20 pins), county runners-up Ben Helbig (103), Lonnie Donner (130, 23-3), Rob Peck (152, 9-2) and Aaron Lawson (160), and fourth-place finishers James Donner (119) and Isaac Putnam (140).
Mervo has two-time city champ Wayne Lucas (135, 22-4), who was fourth in last year's regions after losing, 7-6, to Lonnie Donner.
Other Mervo wrestlers are city champs Garfield Thompson (112, 15-5) and Aaron Brown (Hwt., 21-3), and runners-up Millard West (130), Carlos Levine (145) and Brian Cromwell (152).