Wrestling

H-town finishes in top three at Iron Horse Duals

The SMAC was well represented this past weekend at the prestigious 13th annual Iron Horse Duals hosted by C. Milton Wright High School in Harford County.

For the second straight year at the tournament, La Plata settled for runner-up after advancing to the finals of the gathering with wins in its first six matches. But again, it was John Carroll from Harford County that got the best of La Plata to claim the tournament title. Carroll overwhelmed the Warriors, 54-13.

Huntingtown finished third at the tournament as second-year head coach Kevin Gilligan beat his former team in Stephen Decatur of Worcester County in the consolation final, 42-28.

Gilligan built Decatur into a state contender over 12 seasons before coming back home to Southern Maryland to coach at Huntingtown.

“Big wins over Decatur and North Carroll,” Gilligan said of what highlighted Huntingtown’s seven matches, including a 4-1 run in its pool, losing only to eventual champion John Carroll by a 59-10 margin. “We wrestled overall very well. We are continuing to learn from these experiences. There were times in matches where we had a chance to really put teams away, and we backed off a little. That is something we need to improve on.”

He added about the tournament, “A very good experience indeed as we begin the heart of our dual-meet season. It was a great opportunity to wrestle John Carroll, who is a very quality opponent. I was proud that we went and were competitive with them, regardless of the final score.”

Huntingtown and La Plata were in separate pools and did not wrestle each other.

Huntingtown was spearheaded by heavyweight Dalonte Holland’s unbeaten 7-0 tournament mark.

Ryan Lumsden (120), Dominic Sita (138) and Colton Rowe (160/170) were each 6-1 at the tournament to support Huntingtown’s cause.

Rowe became Huntingtown’s all-time career wins leader with 113 thanks to his tournament performance.

Huntingtown knocked off North Carroll (40-29), C.M. Wright (55-20), Eastern Tech (58-18), Towson (63-10) and Harford Tech (76-6) in addition to Decatur, falling only to John Carroll.

DALLAS COGLE