South River junior Chris Elliot pulled off the meet's biggest upset by beating previously undefeated Brad Pendock of Arundel, 9-6, to win the 189-pound title. Annapolis freshman Bubby Graham knocked off top-seeded Shane Fraser of Chesapeake, 3-0, in the 135-pound final.
Arundel junior Justin Bowser won his third consecutive regional crown by beating South River's Ethan Harvey, 15-6, to win the 125-pound title.
Old Mill's Greg Saumenig, top, grapples with Mervo's Lamone Wilson to win the 103-pound title as the Patriots claimed their 2nd region crown in three years.
(Don Wright For The Washington Post)
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"It helps my confidence going into states," Bowser said. "I'll get a high seed coming off a big win."
4A/3A South
If there were a time for Colin Leadbeter to smile, it appeared to be last night, after he won his second Maryland 4A/3A South Region championship.
Not only did the Northern sophomore 119-pounder run his record to 32-2, he did so with a 5-1 victory over previously-undefeated Chopticon junior Lucas Black. Leadbeter avenged a 1-0 loss in last week's Southern Maryland Athletic Conference tournament to the defending 4A/3A 103-pound state champion.
Heading into next week's state tournament, "It gives me a little bit of confidence," Leadbeter said. "But the last time I beat someone I wasn't supposed to beat, I got a little overconfident."
Leadbeter is referring to his 7-2 victory over River Hill's David Heckmann in the War on the Shore tournament at Stephen Decatur in December. Two weeks ago, in the 4A/3A dual meet semifinals, Leadbeter lost to Heckmann, 2-1.
Leadbeter said he won't be smiling until after the state tournament. Last year, he failed to place there, despite winning the SMAC and regional tournaments.
"It's a bad memory," Leadbeter said. "I need to focus a little more."
Good memories came last night for McDonough senior All-Met Matt Myers (31-0), who won his fourth region title with an 11-2 victory over La Plata's Matt Orzechowski at 130 pounds. Myers is the 125-pound state champion.
Seeking his first state championship, Chopticon senior Michael Cannon remained perfect at 35-0 with a victory by technical fall over Northern junior Aaron Leadbeter at 145 pounds.
In the 125-pound final, La Plata sophomore Scott Carter defeated his cousin, Northern sophomore Paul Carter, 4-2, to win his first region crown. The victory helped propel La Plata to its second straight team championship by 25 points over Northern. Dane Orzechowski (112 pounds), Matt Szoch (160), and Eric Jobe (275) also won individual titles for the Warriors.
4A/3A West
A week after what Whitman Coach Andy Wetzel called his team's "worst performance" of the season, the third-ranked Vikings rebounded to capture their second consecutive Maryland 4A/3A West Region championship yesterday at Sherwood High.
Four Whitman wrestlers won individual titles, and four others placed third as the Vikings compiled 169.5 points, beating runner-up Northwest (148) and third-place Paint Branch (120). The victory gave Whitman a measure of retribution -- last week Northwest edged the Vikings by 2.5 points to win the Montgomery County title.
"They were a little upset about losing last week," Wetzel said of his wrestlers. "We had just got done winning [the Maryland 4A/3A dual meet tournament], and then we lose at counties. We felt we had to redeem ourselves."
Whitman sophomore 140-pounder Eren Civan led the way, pinning all three of his opponents to capture his second region crown and remain unbeaten in his high school career. Civan's older brother, Erol, a senior, won the 145-pound title, and senior Andrew Robinson and sophomore Pat Lazear captured the 112- and 215-pound titles, respectively. All four wrestlers are unbeaten this year.
The Vikings won without unbeaten senior heavyweight Carl Ehrlich, last year's region champion whose season ended with an injury to his right knee at the county tournament last week. Ehrlich was on crutches at Sherwood yesterday.
"He's still here supporting us, so we had to step it up," Erol Civan said.
Northwest had five wrestlers make finals, but only one, senior 152-pounder T.J. Lefeged, won a title. Paint Branch's third-place finish was fueled by junior heavyweight Tony Ayigah, who was the only wrestler not seeded first or second to win a title.
Sherwood had two champions in sophomores Andy Lowy (103) and Rhett Beattie (119). Beattie remained unbeaten, as did Wheaton's Alejandro Zea (125), Magruder's Cam Watkins (135) and Quince Orchard's Eddie Baughan (171).
Staff writer Alan Goldenbach and special correspondent Jake Schaller contributed to this report.
