River Hill senior Ryan Lauer emerged from the tunnel at the University of Maryland's Cole Field House, paused and looked at approximately 5,000 spectators in the stands surrounding the wrestling mats.
Lauer (130 pounds) then paced the outskirts of the mat with teammates Taylor Green (125) and David Heckmann (119), who also had advanced to the finals of the Maryland 4A/3A State Tournament on Saturday. Wrestling in big matches was nothing new to Green, a junior, who lost in the 103-pound final last year, or Heckmann, a senior foreign exchange student from Germany who has won numerous tournaments in his native country.
Matt Myers defeated Ryan Lauer of River Hill in the 130-pound state final. Lauer finished 35-7 in his final season.
(Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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But championship matches were new to Lauer. It was his first trip to the finals at Cole, where his brother, Brandon, had won three consecutive state titles from 1998-2000.
"I just wanted to make sure I took in the whole atmosphere because this is it for me: Win or lose, I'm hanging up my singlet," he said. "I've been wrestling for 12 years to get here. Getting here is the ultimate goal of every wrestler, and I made it. I couldn't stop moving before the match. I was too nervous. I mean, it's the state final, and if you're not nervous, then there's got to be something wrong with you."
Lauer's dream season came to a nightmarish end. He was overwhelmed by McDonough senior All-Met Matt Myers, who capped an undefeated season with a 17-2 win.
But this was no time for Lauer to be sad. He had exceeded everyone's expectations by advancing this far after losing six matches this year, the second-highest number of losses of any wrestler who reached a state final.
"There were 448 wrestlers here that competed at the state tournament in either classification, and at the end of day, only 56 of them can be in a final," said River Hill Coach Earl Lauer, Ryan's dad, referring to the 14 weight classes in both the 4A/3A and 2A/1A tournament, which are held at the same time. "So you have close to 400 wrestlers who would give anything to be here right now. There's no shame in losing in the state final. It's the closest you can get without winning."
Ryan Lauer (35-7) wasn't the only Howard County wrestler who left with a silver medal. Of seven wrestlers who advanced to a state final in either the 4A/3A or 2A/1A classifications, only two experienced victory. In the 2A/1A tournament, Hammond sophomore Vince Taweel won the 130-pound class, and Howard senior Mingo Grant became the county's first wrestler to win the 215-pound class.
Taweel (41-1), who won the 125-pound class last year, became the first county wrestler to begin his career with consecutive state titles when he won, 4-2, over Oakland Mills' Anthonio Josiah (22-5). Grant pinned Oakland Mills' Sean Kendig (14-3) in 4 minutes 29 seconds to become just the second wrestler from Howard High to win a state title. Howard's Angelo Bavetto won a pair of heavyweight titles in 1982 and 1983.
"It just doesn't get any bigger than this," said Grant, who finished 34-4. "It's unbelievable because now I'm the best in the state."
Hammond's Ethan Cohen, as well Heckmann and Green, came tantalizing close to sharing Grant's sentiments. In the 2A/1A 119-pound final, Cohen held a 4-2 lead before he was pinned by Hereford's D.J. Scarponi midway through the third period. In the 4A/3A tournament, Heckmann lost to South River's Andrew Mulry, 8-5, to finish the season 34-4. Green lost to Arundel's Justin Bowser, 4-2, and finished 35-3, which ties him with Ryan Lauer and Nick Shevland for the third-most wins in a season in school history.
"The wins don't matter because I lost in the finals last year, so to lose in the finals this year means I didn't improve, and that's what I'm mad about," Green said. "I worked so hard to go one step further and it didn't happen. Someone had to lose, and it was me. I can just hope that I'm not the one who loses next year."
Cohen, Heckmann, Kendig and Josiah are still exploring the possibility of extending their wrestling careers in college, but for Ryan Lauer, there will be no more championships to chase. He concluded his night by quietly sitting on the second-place pedestal, waiting for the other place-winners to gather for the awards ceremony.
"It's over," he said. "It's not the way I would have liked to go out, but I feel fortunate just to have gotten this far. There are still a lot of people who would like to trade places with me right now."
