Arundel junior Justin Bowser displayed no emotion when the referee raised his arm in victory and spectators gave him a standing ovation following his 4-2 win in the 125-pound final of the Maryland 4A/3A State Wrestling tournament.
"That's just Justin for you," Coach Bill Royer said. "He wanted to pin the kid. Justin tries to be a perfectionist."
Above, Josh Hickcox of Southern tries to escape Andrew Presnell of Middletown. Right, Arundel's Justin Bowser tries to break the hold of River Hill's Taylor Green.
(Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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Bowser finished the year 39-1, extending his career record to 109-6. He needs 30 wins next season to eclipse the Anne Arundel County record of 138 set by Old Mill's Doug West in 2004. And should he repeat as state champion next year, Bowser would be one of just 11 county wrestlers to win multiple state titles.
"My goal next year is to go undefeated," Bowser said. "I want to go down as the best wrestler my school and this county has ever had." His only loss this season was to DeMatha's Steve Sargent.
Bowser placed fourth in the 103-pound class as a freshman and third in the 112-pound competition as a sophomore. With his victory Saturday over River Hill's Taylor Green, he became the first wrestler in school history to place at the state tournament three times.
"That's a tribute to how hard Justin works, and he always expects to win," Royer said. "He has high expectations, and I've built my entire program around him. He knows he has the chance to have a special career and the chance to be considered one of the best wrestlers our county has ever had."
Several other county wrestlers also found success at the state meet.
Andrew Mulry, a 119-pound senior, became just the second South River wrestler to win a state title, posting an 8-5 victory over River Hill's David Heckmann, a foreign exchange student from Germany who is ranked nationally in his native country.
Mulry (34-1) pinned his first two opponents before earning a hard-fought 5-4 victory over Southern Maryland Athletic Conference champion Colin Leadbeter of Northern.
Against Heckmann, he scored a 2-point takedown for an early lead he never relinquished.
"Ten years, ten years I worked for this, and when I took him down the first time it felt so good because I knew I was in control of the match," Mulry said. "All the work I did was to go out here and win a state championship, and it was worth it."
Five other county wrestlers advanced to the finals but had to settle for a silver medal.
Old Mill sophomore Greg Saumenig (35-3) suffered a tough 1-0 loss to Sherwood's Andy Lowy (33-2) in the 103-pound class, while senior teammate Chris Volker (38-5) lost to Kenwood's Mason Krumholtz, 7-0, in the 152-pound final.
Southern senior heavyweight Josh Hickcox lost in the finals of the 2A/1A tournament for the second consecutive year, in a 3-1 decision to Frederick County champion Andrew Presnell of Middletown (36-1).
Arundel senior Josh Hayghe (33-10), who entered the tournament with more losses than any of the other 447 wrestlers who competed, advanced to the 160-pound final but was pinned by Damascus's Eric Duvall (34-2). Brad Pendock (38-2), who entered having lost just one match all season, fell 3-0 in the 189-pound final to Magruder's John Holloway (39-2).
Arundel placed four wrestlers in the finals, generating enough points (83) for a fourth-place team finish, its highest since winning the title in 1998. Whitman won its first state title with 115 points, followed by Magruder (96.5) and Northwest (87.5).
Chesapeake, led by a third-place finish by senior Shane Fraser (135) and a fifth-place showing by senior Patrick McLanigan (215), finished seventh with 70 points, and Old Mill, with a third-place finish from senior Adam Chisolm (171), ended in ninth place with 66 points.
"Our county had three teams finish in the top 10, so that's a good showing," Royer said. "But had some matches gone differently, it could have been even better."
