DANNY BICHNER WINS HIS 4TH HOWARD COUNTY TITLE

by Lem Satterfield

(Check videos below of Howard County wrestling finals)

Glenelg’s two-time state runner-up Danny Bichner (135) blanked Oakland Mills’ Thomas Consiglio to become only Howard County’s eighth four-time tournmament champion, and three of his teammates joined him on the victory podium as the Gladiators, ranked sixth in the DigitalSports-Maryland State Wrestling Association Top 20, clinched their second straight Howard County title at Atholton on Saturday night.

“I feel pretty good about my match. He didn’t really come close to taking me down. He was kind hanging back, being defensive and posing,” said the University of Maryland-bound Bichner, who blanked Oakland Mills’ Thomas Consigilo, 4-0.

“I was happy with the second period, getting the escape and the takedown to go up 3-0,” said Bichner, a winner of 131 of his 144 high school bouts, including 31 of 34 this year.

“In the third period, I feel like I should have attacked a little more, maybe pushed for another takedown,” Bichner said. “But I got the win, so I feel good about that.”

Although the Gladiators (176 points) have an insurmountable lead over
second place Reservoir (154) and third-place Atholton (149.5), the
tournament is not complete.

Because of inclement weather on Friday night that forced county school
closures, the event — usually handled over two days — was held on
Saturday only.

State association rules allow public school
wrestlers to compete in no more than four bouts in one day, causing
several of the consolation final bouts to be pushed to Monday at 4 p.m.
at Atholton.

Bichner’s state runner-up teammate, Chris Stinnett (140) scored a technical fall to earn his third straight crown, and state runner-up teammate Brian Marcoux (125) and third-place state finisher Tim Chase (152) earned their second consecutive titles.

Stinnett had pins in 36-seconds and 1:23, respectively, to reach the final.

“My goal, as I told my college coaches, is that I wanted to pin or tech-fall my way through the counties, regions and states, and that’s what I’m trying to do,” said Stinnett, who is headed for Cal State-Fullerton, where he will wrestle.

“I didn’t pin, but I tech-falled him, so I feel like that’s still domination, which is what I’m trying to do,” said Stinnett. “I didn’t wrestle to expectations last year, so this year, I’m trying to go all out.”

Marcoux won a clash of returning county champions, 3-1, in overtime over Howard High’s Tyler Bulger, on a takedown.

“He wrestled his match, caught me off guard with a perfect gameplan. You could tell that he had worked on it. I didn’t attack enough, and when I did attack, I was taking bad shots,” Marcoux said.

“The last match against him, I was flowing with some good shots, but I had no setups this time,” said Marcoux, who defeated Bulger, 13-4, during their first meeting. “This time, we were standing there, trading off shots, and he took a bad shot in the end and I was able to capitalize.”

Reservoir crowned its school’s first champion when junior 171-pounder Tyler Breitschwerdt overcame a 4-1, first-period deficit by pinning Hammond’s Nick Croniger in 3:03.

“I caught him with a fat-man roll, and then I just sort of took him over,” said Breitschwerdt, who is 26-7. “I feel pretty good about this. It gets me ready for regionals.”

Breitschwerdt overcame Oakland Mills’ Woody Hillen, 3-2, in a quadruple overtime semifinal victory before facing Croniger, who pinned him in the first period of their initial meeting.

Atholton crowned four champions for the first time since 2000, as Kevin Beck (103), Doug Carpenter (160), Malcolm Stennett (189) and Mike Massarelli (215) all won titles.

Carpenter, Stennett and Massarelli all improved on their runner-up efforts of a year ago.

Carpenter overcame the Gladiators’ defending champion Alex Hufnagel in overtime, scoring the decisive takedown at mat’s edge.

“I got two escapes, and then tied it up and took it into overtime. I just kept attacking, and he kept scooting back,” said Carpenter, who overcame Oakland Mills’ Chris Ealey, 5-4, in the semifinals.

“I guess [Hufnagel] just gassed out, and that all of the conditioning finally paid off for me,” Carpenter said. “I was the third seed, so anything from the semifinals on is an upset. I don’t know what to tell you man, this is just crazy.”

Stennett, who won by only 2-0 in his semifinal over Wilde Lake’s Patrick James, pinned Reservoir’s Ardy Kamali at 4:30 of their title bout to improve to 32-1.

“I went from the Navy and held the far-side arm and twisted him up,” said Stennett, whose lone defeat was against state champ Danny Miller of Stephen Decatur. “He got free, but I went to a reverse-half and pinned him.”

Massarelli improved his series lead to 2-1 against Marriotts Ridge’s regional champ, Jae Kim, whom he pinned in 39 seconds to improve to 28-1.

“When Malcolm pinned, that was a lot more motivation for me to come out and get a pin,” Massarelli said. “Probably working with each other makes us want to get better.”

Beck won for the 30th consecutive time to improve to 32-1, with his lone defeat being against two-time Baltimore County champion, Avi Friedman of Owings Mills, by 7-1.

As opposed to his regular-season bout with Gerber, won on a last-second reversal for a one point decision, Beck simply dominated from start to finish on Saturday, winning easily, 7-0.

“I tried to stick to my normal move, my fireman’s carry, and I got it on him twice,” said Beck, a sophomore. “Toward the end of the second period, when I was up by two or three, he seemed like he was tiring.”

Winning for Oakland Mills were Jovan Saunders (152) and Mike Santiago (285), with the latter earning his second straight crown, 4-2, over Atholton’s Brian Nance — a county titlist last year at 189 pounds.

A returning regional champion, Santiago is the county’s lone unbeaten wrestler. Santiago improved to 30-0 with 26 pins, dropping Nance, whom he defeated earlier, 2-1, to an overall record of 30-2.

“It was big for me to get the early takedown for momentum. I feel like he wrestled hard, and I can’t give him anything but props,” said Santiago, a B-average student who is considering Cleaveland State University and George Mason for wrestling, or Randolph Macon or Salisbury for football.

“I take a lot of pride in the fact that I’m the only undefeated wrestler in the county, and I want to be an example for kids who might be looking at me and thinking about wrestling,” said Santiago, a 234-pounder. “I want so use this sport to get to college. I’m looking to get that state title.”

River Hill’s state champion Scott Mantua (112) pinned Resevoir’s Ben O’keefe in a cradle in 1:44 to earn his second straight county title.

“At first, I wasn’t finishing my high crotches. But I got that won, drove across and set the cradle right up,” said Mantua. “If you start wrestling right off of the takedown, sometimes, you can get them on their back. I was able to get the cradle locked up real quick. This feels pretty good. It’s a good start to my postseason.”

Mantua’s teammate, state runner-up and two-time regional champion, Nathan White (130), scored a 12-2 major decision over Centennial’s Brian Kraisser for his crown after having twice finished third at counties.

“My first two years, I got third both times and I won regionals both of those years,” White said. “But I had never won the county title, so now, it’s nice to have won it.”

Centennial’s Dan LeRoy (119) won perhaps the event’s most difficult weight class, scoring an overtime, 4-2 decision over Glenelg’s third-place state finisher Brendan Conway.

LeRoy was named the event’s Outstaning Wrestler

“I snapped him down, and then, I kind of hipped-over, more or less the spin-drill that you use in practice and drill for hours every day,” said LeRoy, a junior who scored a semifinal, 13-3 major decision over Reservoir’s Tim Schwartz, the tournament’s No. 1 seed.

“I thought [the sleeper] was a fun thing to be called. I liked it. I knew the tournament was going to be tough,” said LeRoy, a fourth-place county finisher last season who is 32-5. “Conway took me down I think with a double on a good shot by him, and I didn’t defend it. But thankfully, I was able to overcome it in the end.”

Howard County Tournament (Several consolation bouts to be completed on Monday at Atholton starting at 4 p.m.)

Championship finals

103- Kevin Beck (ATH) d. Zach Gerber (G), 7-0

112- Scott Mantua (RH) p. Ben O’Keefe (RS), 1:44

119- Dan LeRoy (CEN) d. Brendan Conway (G), 4-2, OT

125- Brian Marcoux (G) d. Tyler Bulger (HOW), 3-1, OT

130- Nathan White (RH) mj. Brian Kraisser (CEN), 12-2

135- Dan Bichner (G) d. Thomas Consiglio (O), 4-0

140- Chris Stinnett (G) tf. Petter Petties (O), 17-2

145- Jovan Saunders (O) d. Kyle Werner (ATH), 4-2

152- Tim Chase (G) d. Zach Coe (RS), 5-2

160- Doug Carpenter (ATH) d. Alex Hufnagel (G), 4-2, OT