The numbers speak for themselves. At the 43rd annual Howard County wrestling tournament, Feb. 17 and 18, at Oakland Mills High School, River Hill sent nine wrestlers to Saturday evening's championship finals, won five titles, and set a new county record by scoring 264.5 points, almost 70 more than runner-up and defending county champion Glenelg (196).
Cory Daniel (160), Omar Messallam (182), Logan Kirby (195), Jacob Benedict (220) and Jason Johnson (285) all won championships for the Hawks, with Johnson punctuating the evening by pinning Glenelg junior Sean Twigg with only five seconds left in their match.
"For us getting the county championship again, that meant almost more to me than getting my individual one," Johnson said. "And seeing (Daniel, Messallam, Kirby and Benedict) all get their county title, that means a lot. Because I work blood, sweat and tears with those guys in the room everyday."
River Hill had essentially won the county tournament, its first since 2009, after Saturday morning's semifinal round.
"I told the kids when we arrived here two days ago that we would have a chance, if we wrestled well, to get up there and break the record," said coach Brandon Lauer, who was a senior on the 2000 River Hill team that set the previous record with 258 points. "We had a great semifinal round that kind of got the ball rolling today,"
In 2000, the Hawks won their first of five straight county tournament titles, and Lauer won his third straight individual title.
"You can control the intensity level in the room as a wrestler, but as a coach you never know what's going to show up day to day, you've got to make sure the guys are focused and working hard toward the common goal," he said.
That focus was evident, as even River Hill's finalists who did not win — Michael Beck (106), Brian Kirby (138), Casey Guthier (145) and John Kum (170) — battled hard, not ceding any bonus points in the finals.
River Hill's five county championships on Saturday was impressive, but not unique. Glenelg had five county champs in 2007, and Hammond had five each of the two years before. The Hawks themselves had six county champions in 2004, a number that has been matched on numerous occasions. Oakland Mills, in 1986, and Hammond, in 1994, each won a record seven county titles.
That River Hill sent nine wrestlers to the finals, however, in a deep and balanced county, is remarkable, especially considering that three others — Taariq Mohammed (113), Lee Carter (120) and Jack Noonan (152) — were all seeded in the top three, and all had a reasonable chance of making the finals as well.
"They've got two more weeks," Lauer said. "But they had an excellent effort, and this was definitely the best county tournament that I've ever been a part of and coached, and they should feel proud."
While River Hill ran away with the team title, there were plenty of notable individual performances.
Centennial senior Nathan Kraisser (126) inked his name in county history by winning his fourth consecutive county title, becoming just the ninth wrestler in history to do so.
"It's an honor to be up there with those other guys, to be able to come in year in and year out and get it done," said Kraisser. "I think I did a good job of staying healthy and doing the right things to be able to have this success."
In two weeks, Kraisser will have the opportunity to accomplish an even loftier feat when he attempts to win his fourth straight state title.
Incredibly, Oakland Mills senior Tony Farace, who won his second straight county title on Saturday at his home gym, will be chasing the same golden ring.
Farace fell to Kraisser at the county tournament each of his first two years. He was joined by fellow Scorpion captains Zach Hensley (106) and David Ulysse (152) atop the podium.
"Each one is special in that I worked hard to get here. It means something to get my second out of the four years I've been here," Farace said. "It feels like the season just started a couple of weeks ago. Its definitely a little crazy that it's coming down to the last two weeks."
Hensley, still just a junior, will have a chance to win a third straight county title next season.
Reservoir enjoyed two history making performances on Saturday. First, freshman Sam Rowell (138) defeated fellow freshman Brian Kirby, of River Hill, to become the youngest county champion in school history. Rowell's older brother, Seth (now a junior at Mount St. Joseph) set the bar last year by winning as a sophomore.
"Seth's definitely had a lot of great accomplishments, but it's nice to have my turn, my time to shine at Reservoir," the younger Rowell said. "At the beginning of the season I had no clue how I was going to do, I thought high school was going to be really, really tough. But the hard work during the season pays off."
The wrestler that Seth defeated to win his title last year was none other than Cameron Kirby, a defending county champ and Brian's older brother.
Next, sophomore Mason Kilcarr (113) earned the Glenn Devane Outstanding Wrestler Award for his championship pin of Wilde Lake's 2010 state champion Alex Polonsky.
"I had a lot of doubts, but I just went out there and wrestled my match and shocked myself," said Kilcarr, who won a 3A/4A East regional title last year as a freshman. "There were a lot of scrambles, but I ended up on top in most of them ... once I was on top at anytime, I knew I was more in control so I could work more moves."
Kilcarr is the first Reservoir wrestler to ever earn the award, leaving Marriotts Ridge and Mt. Hebron as the only two schools without a representative on the list.
Several other county champions did not make history on Saturday, but their wins were no less special.
Wilde Lake sophomore Malik Jackson (132) came out of seemingly nowhere to win his title. Last year, as a first year wrestler, he won the JV county championship at 125.
"I was so nervous coming in, I just wrestle every match like the kid is a champion," said Jackson, who was drawn to the sport by former Wilde Lake coaches Azmar Hagler and Butch Keaser. "I got the taste to win. I wanted to win so bad."
At 145, Atholton junior Pat Mullens survived a tumultuous weight class to have his hand raised as county champ. The prohibitive favorite, Hammond's Jon Goodwin, missed weight by a fraction of a pound on Friday. Mullens, who missed his sophomore season, earned an overtime win over Oakland Mills' Jaron Smith in the opening round, then used a last second reversal to upset No. 2 seed Joe Kendrick of Mt. Hebron in the semifinals before edging Guthier, 11-9, in the finals.
"This weekend has been crazy ... the whole thing has been close and unpredictable," he said. "The whole time I thought I could get first and it happened ... this is kind of my comeback year. No one really knew about me."
Glenelg's Tyler Asher (170) won a county title last year on JV before finally getting his varsity opportunity as a senior.
"It feels good to be able to step up for my team on varsity, I've always been behind real good wrestlers ... but I've been waiting for this," said Asher, who was the only one of five Glenelg finalists to ascend to the top of the podium. Winning a varsity title "was always in the back of my mind ... working hard for four years, it's a great payoff."
The tournament was also a sign of good things to come for Howard County wrestling. Of the 28 finalists, 18 were underclassmen, including three freshmen and seven sophomores. Only seven of the 14 county champions will graduate after this season.