Sherwood's Lowy Brings the 'Funk'

Andy Lowy recently won a match with a flip. "Andy is a trained professional," assistant Mitch Rosenfeld joked. "Do not try this at home." (By Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)

Sherwood senior Andy Lowy had to bring the tape of his 130-pound championship bout at the Anne Arundel Holiday Tournament to practice this week, because some of his teammates and a coach had missed it. Even those who saw the match on Dec. 28 crowded around the television.

"Kids, Andy is a trained professional," assistant coach Mitch Rosenfeld joked. "Do not try this at home."

In the match, Archbishop Curley's Mitch Fenton caught Lowy in a single-leg hold, ratcheting up his left leg. When Fenton tried to kick out Lowy's right leg, Lowy did a back flip. He landed on his stomach and came up and around Fenton, preserving an 8-3 win to claim the tournament title.

"I wasn't really thinking about it," Lowy said. "I didn't know I was going to do it until the millisecond before I hit it."

Lowy learned the flip while watching an online video of Cary Kolat, an Olympic wrestler who has trained with Lowy in the past. Kolat did not teach the move to Lowy, the high schooler said, and he had practiced it just a couple times before last week.

The flip is a last-resort defensive move. Lowy, a two-time state champion at 103 and 119 pounds, has a whole bag of tricks in a style called "Funk." It's rarely used at the high school level, but Lowy will find more wrestlers who have adopted the style next year at Princeton.

Lowy explains Funk as a way to counter an opponent's moves by rolling around and underneath the opponent, putting himself into compromising positions while aiming to end up on top for a score of his own. He started learning it five years ago from his freestyle coach, Mike DeSarno, and seems to have mastered it this year, starting the season at 14-0.

Sharbaugh Back on Track

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After missing the first two weeks of the season with an ankle injury, defending state champion Will Sharbaugh of Whitman returned to the mat Dec. 22 and began this season where he left off last season -- with a victory.

Sharbaugh, a senior who went 37-0 at 103 pounds as a junior, broke a bone and tore ligaments in his ankle during a club practice in early November. Wrestling at 119 pounds this season, Sharbaugh won his opening match against Gaithersburg.

"He was obviously fired up," Whitman Coach Andy Wetzel said. "Barring another injury or any other major setbacks, he's working toward another state championship. It will be more mental now than anything."

Waiters Starts Strong

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Oxon Hill senior Chris Waiters (189 pounds) is 8-0 and won a title at the Ed Peery Wrestling Tournament, which featured 11 teams at Annapolis Area Christian School in mid-December. Waiters and his teammates will participate in Northern High School's Patriot Classic this weekend. . . .

Hammond will be the only Maryland team to wrestle in the Battlefield Duals at Hayfield this weekend. The tournament will feature nationally ranked teams from around the country, including teams from New York, Georgia, Pennsylvania and Virginia.