Pointer’s Krug wins 182-pound county title

by Bill Gates

    Wayne Maddox became the first Dundalk High individual Baltimore County wrestling champion of the 21st Century when he pinned top-seeded Darius Carroll of Owings Mills in the 285-pound finals on Saturday at Perry Hall.
    James Krug of Sparrows Point won the county 182-pound title with a 3-2 decision over Jerrell Ferguson of Milford Mill.
    The last time an Owl wrestler had his hand held up by the official at the conclusion of a match in the championship round of the Baltimore County tournament was in 1997.
    That year, Rick Reesey won the county title at 112 pounds.
   

To break what was the longest title drought in Dundalk’s history, Maddox had to defeat Carroll after losing to the Golden Eagle wrestler the week before in the regional duals tournament.
    From his earlier loss, Maddox said he learned Carroll “does a lot of trips and throws. I thought, as long as I stayed away from that, I’d be good.”
    After a scoreless first period, Maddox started the second period in the top position and put Carroll on his back for three points.
    Carroll tied the score before the end of the period with a reversal and a penalty point against Maddox for stalling.
    Starting the third period in the bottom position, Maddox escaped, took Carroll down and pinned him with 22 seconds remaining.
    “He made a bad decision, tried to put me on top of him,” Maddox said. “I just laid there and, once I got him on his back, kept squeezing until he was pinned.”
    Carroll fought the pin for over a minute before making a last-ditch — and unsuccessful — attempt to roll Maddox.
    “Wayne did a good job of settling himself so he didn’t get rolled through,” Dundalk coach Chad Goodnight said. “It’s tricky balancing in that weight class. You want to be high enough to keep the other guy on his back, but not too high to get rolled through.”
    Maddox, seeded second, reached the finals by pinning Towson’s Peter De Guzman in 1:15; pinning Hereford’s Patrick Anderson in 2:18; and winning a 4-1 decision over third-seeded Quincy Wise of Randallstown.
    Krug, the top seed at 182 pounds, had to come from behind in the third period to beat the second-seeded Ferguson.
    Neither wrestler scored during the first two periods. Starting the third period on the bottom, Krug escaped with 1:29 remaining to take a 1-0 lead.
    Ferguson took Krug down for a 2-1 lead with 50 seconds left in the match. Krug scored a reversal 12 seconds later, and held on for the last half-minute.
    “I was in a bad position, and he got two points out of it,” Krug said. “Then I hit a Granby roll to get out of it. I was trying to roll through for an escape.”
    Instead, Krug caught Ferguson off-balance and turned the escape attempt into a reversal.
    Shane Hammer of Sparrows Point, seeded second at 145 pounds, lost a 5-4 decision to Eastern Tech’s Dustin Shackleford in the finals.
    The score was tied 2-2 entering the third period, with Hammer getting an early takedown and Shackleford tying it with a pair of escapes.
    Shackleford started the final period on top and put Hammer on his back for a 5-2 lead.
    Hammer escaped with 15 seconds remaining, but wasn’t able to catch Shackleford — who was penalized for stalling — for a takedown before time expired.
    Krug and Hammer led Sparrows Point to a seventh-place finish with 93 points.
    Owings Mills won the team title over host Perry Hall, 205-181. Hereford finished third with 148.5 points, followed by Eastern Tech (116), Franklin (114) and Pikesville (105).
    Dundalk finished ninth with 85 points, behind eighth-place Catonsville (90.5).
    “We come into the county tournament with the mindset we’re preparing for the regional tournament,” Sparrows Point coach Mike Whisner said. “We rested a couple of guys who were banged up, and our kids got some good work in.”
    The Class 1A/2A North regional tournament is on Friday and Saturday at Owings Mills. The Pointers finished second to the Golden Eagles at last year’s championships.
    At the county tournament, Whisner was most proud that all ten Pointer wrestlers advanced to the second day (meaning they all won at least one match on Friday).
    Sparrows Point’s Randy Watson provided one of the surprises of the county tournament when he knocked off top-seeded D.J. Grindle of Perry Hall at 120 pounds — twice.
    Watson, who was injured for most of the regular season and thus had a very low seed, won a 4-2 decision over Grindle in the quarterfinals, then beat Grindle 4-3 in the consolation finals for third place.
    The Pointers also got a fourth-place finish from Teddy Cadd at 152 pounds.
    Cadd, seeded third,  reached the semifinals with two pins before losing to second-seeded (and eventual champion) Jesse Garrett of Towson, 11-1.
    In the consolation finals, Cadd lost to Eastern Tech’s Ilya Usik 4-1.
    Dundalk had two third-place finishers: Alfred Martinez (126 pounds) and Joe Doetsch (195).
    Martinez, seeded second, won his first two matches before losing in the semifinals to third-seeded Nick Montanye of Franklin, 10-1.
    In the consolation finals, Martinez pinned Hereford’s Kevin Wheeler in 2:41.
    Doetsch, the top seed, was upset in the semifinals by Mitchell Burns of Eastern Tech, 2-0.
    In the consolation finals, Doetsch pinned Tarrence Henry of Catonsville in 1:43. It was Doetsch’s third pin of the tournament.
    Dundalk’s Kyle Byrd finished sixth at 182 pounds after getting knocked out in the semifinals by Krug in a 4-2 decision.
     Stephen Beam of Edgemere, who wrestles for Eastern Tech, finished in third place at 138 pounds.