La Plata has arguably been one of the toughest teams in the conference the last several years and shows no signs of slowing down after sweeping a tri-meet against Great Mills and host Northern on Tuesday.
La Plata (6-0, 5-0 SMAC) won 19 of 28 matches, including 13 by pins, to defeat the Hornets, 52-21, and the Patriots, 48-21.
"I wasn't real happy," La Plata head coach Todd Sharp said. "The kids wrestled well, but we've got a lot of work to do, that's for sure. Obviously up top it'll be nice to get Alex [Ingagliato] back [from injury]. We've got some inexperience to try and overcome, but the lighter weights have to make hay, you know? We've got a lot to work on, but overall it was pretty good."
Northern (7-6, 2-2) earned a split on the night after coming from behind to defeat Great Mills, 43-35.
Great Mills (6-7, 0-4) was forced to forfeit two bouts –– at 112 and 119 pounds –– in each match.
La Plata disposed of the Hornets by winning the first five bouts, which began at 130. Four of the wins came on pins courtesy of Nick Romero (130), Chase Ursitti (135), Joey Higgs (140) and Nick Houser (160), which staked the Warriors to a 27-0 lead.
Great Mills rallied to win the next four bouts to close to within six points, the final win coming on heavyweight Aaron Rodenizer's 80-second pin over La Plata's Jon Boarman.
But, La Plata was victorious in each of the last five bouts. Nine of La Plata's 10 wins earned them six points. The other win was a 9-3 decision by Brent Mowry at 152.
The Warriors completed the sweep by winning four of the first five matches against Northern and five of the last seven.
La Plata began the match with a major decision by Ursitti and, after an 8-1 win by Northern's Jeff Williams, rode successive first-period pins by Brent Mowry (152), Houser and Mitch Keith (171) to a 21-2 advantage.
The Patriots responded with a pin by Matt Kopishke (189) and a forfeit win at 215 to close to within 21-14.
The two teams traded major decisions as Northern's Eric Stubblefield (103) and La Plata's Jason Jennings (112) each chalked up wins.
"I knew it was going to be a tough match coming in," said Stubblefield, who was coming off his first tournament weight class win at Arundel. "I've wrestled [La Plata's Dustin Dull] a few times before and we went back and forth, so it was nice to get a win."
Northern's Quentin Leadbeter and Daniel Brannon met in what was widely regarded as the bout of the night.
The entire gymnasium came to a halt and even some softball players conducting workouts came in to watch arguably two of the best grapplers in the state battle it out at 119 pounds.
Brannon set the tone early when he jumped out to a 2-0 lead on a first-period takedown. But, Leadbeter cut the deficit in half when he was awarded an escape point with 26 seconds left in the opening period.
After a scoreless middle frame, Leadbeter tied the bout with an escape with 46 seconds left and earned the win on a takedown with 26 seconds on the clock. Leadbeter was warned for stalling a few seconds later, but held off Brannon for the win.
"I knew it would probably be one of my biggest matches in the SMAC, so I'd need to bring my ‘A' game," said Leadbeter, who won his weight class at the Arundel tournament. "He's really good; you can't get much better. He's probably my toughest competition out there.
"It's what [Quentin] needs and it's what Brannon needs."
Sharp added, "Leadbeter's a good wrestler and so is Daniel. It was a state-caliber match."
Despite Leadbeter's clutch win, La Plata's Mike Garrow sealed the win when he stapled Daniel Wilson to the mat in 3 minutes 39 seconds at 125.
"I try not to think about the score so much so it doesn't get to my head," Garrow said, "and it's not all up to me or anything like that."
Garrow said he kept busy during the holiday break and even went out for a run and jumped rope after opening gifts Christmas morning.
"I feel pretty good and really in shape," he said. "I knew it was time to get serious."
"To go out and wrestle," Sharp said, when asked the key to beating the Patriots. "They're down this year a little bit. They have some inexperienced guys, but we also had some question marks in our lineup. We had to make sure people did their jobs so we'd have that covered."
