State Champ

North Carroll's Tom Kiler and South Carroll's Mike Chenoweth enter the season with a tag no other county wrestlers can claim -- returning state champions.It means a lot of different things.Some opponents come gunning for them, looking to make a mark if they can knock off a state champ. The majority rightly come in worried and overwhelmed, leaving little chance for themselves before the match even starts.And some of the best competition the two could face never gets to the mat with coaches preferring to instead slide them up or down the lineup to get matchups they will benefit more from.

Old Mill's football players came into their home opener Friday night with a chip on their collective shoulder. They wanted to prove it's time to talk about current Patriots such as Marcus Hicks, Jalen Jones and Carl Chance instead of dwelling on the talent they lost from last year's Class 4A state championship team. Against Anne Arundel County foe Broadneck, the host Patriots proved they could pick up right where the state title team left off despite graduating 16 starters, including running back Rob Chesson and his state-record 49 touchdowns.

Even before his senior season began, the praise was coming in from virtually everywhere for Owings Mills wrestler Grant Johnson.That's what can happen when your final high school season is preceded by consecutive 2A-1A state titles and a seventh-place finish in the summer freestyle nationals, which qualifies you as an All-American.Former Clarion State wrestler and 16-time national champ Wade Schalles, a world champ in 1977, calls Johnson "a class act."Haswell Franklin, chairman of the Maryland State Wrestling Association, said, "Grant Johnson has as much or more potential to do well in Division I wrestling than any Maryland wrestler in the past decade."

After barely being tested in regional play and winning three games by double digits, the No. 14 Century girls continued their stellar play in Friday night's Class 2A state semifinal against Owings Mills. The Knights used a fast start and tenacious defense to overwhelm the Eagles, 47-20, at UMBC's RAC Arena. Junior center Jamie Clarke had 10 points and seven rebounds for Century, and senior guard Alice Mercer added 11 points, five rebounds and three steals. "We knew had to step up, especially on defense," said Century senior forward Angela Flister, whose team forced 27 turnovers.

Before the season even began, Severna Park boys cross country coach Ed Purpura already had Westminster in his cross hairs. Two of the Falcons' preseason goals were to dethrone the Owls as regional and state champs. Severna Park accomplished the first of those yesterday at Baybrook Park, as the fifth-ranked Falcons won the star-studded Class 4A East regional meet with 56 points. No. 4 Westminster, the four-time 4A state champ, finished 14 points back in second, followed by No. 3 Broadneck (74)

Scott Delpo's seventh-ranked Franklin squad has overcome its share of challenges, entering this weekend's Class 4A-3A state wrestling tournament at Western Maryland College. All but four wrestlers have missed time due to injury or illness. Two others, one a returning county champ, were lost to preseason injuries. Another heavily-counted-on teammate was declared academically ineligible before the county tournament. In addition, Delpo's Indians, called "gamers" by South Carroll coach Pete Olson, have endured a schedule that has included Cecil County power Rising Sun and state-tournament caliber competition at Hammond and defending Class 4A-3A champ Damascus.

Gilman wrestling coach Mark Harbold is a former Indiana state runner-up and was fourth in his conference at 134 pounds at Cornell University.Three years ago, when Greg Plitt was a 130-pound freshman junior league state champ with a 36-0 record, Harbold, 35, might have been more than a match for the youngster.But now, said Harbold, "I only go after him toward the end of practice, and then usually on takedowns."The 6-foot-1 Plitt (14-0, nine pins) has grown into the Maryland State Wrestling Association's top-ranked 189-pounder.

It's time for the 12th annual senior All-Star wrestling classic, to be held tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Johns Hopkins University.The event, sponsored by the Maryland State Wrestling Association, annually brings together the state's best seniors and attracts many college scouts.Over the years, it has grown in popularity and has yielded some unexpected surprises."There's so many things you could say about it," said Haswell Franklin, MSWA chairman. "I know for a fact that several of the individuals who have done well here have gotten college scholarships.

Old Mill's two-time 3A-4A state champ Chris Combs and Archbishop Curley's private schools state champ Paul Boettcher earned All-America honors with fourth-place finishes at the weekend's National High School championships at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University.Combs (112) went 6-2 and Boettcher (140) 7-2 in the 10th annual event, which featured 750 public and private school state champs or runners-up from 48 states.DeMatha wrestlers Drew Robertson (140, third) and Wes Cummings (171, third) were Maryland's only other All-Americans in a tournament featuring nine four- time state champs.

McDonogh's Ryan Davis topples champions. So far this year, a Tennessee state champ, a Pennsylvania district champ, three Maryland state champs, a Cadet national champ and a Virginia state champ have all fallen at the hands of the sophomore. Davis (135 pounds) added two more to his list as he captured Baltimore's only National Prep title Saturday in Lehigh, Pa., by defeating Hill postgraduate Aaron Brown and two-time New Jersey state champ Zach Stevens. Surprisingly, the only other Baltimore wrestler in the finals was Mount St. Joseph junior Aaron Herwig (125)

River Hill's heavyweight Jason Johnson looked like a jumping jack as he hopped around the mat at the end of his championship match. The senior was exuberant, punching his hands in the air with both index fingers pointing to the sky. He had just earned a 3-2 victory to win his first Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association title at Cole Field House, and No. 6 River Hill (91 points) had clinched the Class 4A-3A team title for the first time in school history, defeating runner-up Perry Hall (82)

In addition to its challenging Baltimore City league slate, the Patterson boys basketball team took to the road this season, playing a national schedule that included stops in Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee. It was all intended to prepare the No. 5 Clippers for games like the one they played at No. 1 Milford Mill in Saturday's Class 3A North region title game. Suddenly trailing by nine points in the final minute of the third quarter, the Clippers scored 12 straight to climb back in the game and then did all the big and little things needed from that point on to pull out a thrilling 75-72 win over the two-time defending Class 3A state champion Millers.

After competing at a high level in gymnastics throughout her childhood, Arundel senior Elyse Smidinger switched to golf when she was in the eighth grade. To say she has been proven to be a quick study is an understatement. On Oct. 25, Smidinger added to an already impressive resume when she cruised to her second straight individual girls state championship. In addition to her success at the high school level, Smidinger won the Maryland Junior Championships in 2009 and 2011 and was the runner-up in this year's Maryland Women's Amateur Championships.

It's cool one August morning in a forest near the marsh, quiet but for the occasional bellowing of a few green frogs, and two experts on Maryland's flora and fauna are preparing for a sticky mission. Earl "Bud" Reaves dons a wide-brimmed hat and pulls on a pair of hip waders. "A bad day in the woods is better than a good day somewhere else," says Reaves, a forester for Anne Arundel County. Chris Swarth, clad in a tie-dyed shirt, pulls a bright red flag from his jeans.

A two-time Maryland state wrestling champion who was barred from attending classes or competing for an Anne Arundel County high school after being arrested three times is attempting to revive his career — in Florida. Patrick Downey III's eligibility has been rejected twice by a state agency since he enrolled at Oviedo High School near Orlando this month, but an attorney hired by Downey's father, Patrick Jr., in Florida will try to convince a judge in Seminole County Circuit Court Tuesday that Downey should be allowed to wrestle when the district finals begin Saturday.

Owings Mills junior Taran Carr comes from a wrestling family. Two of his uncles, Jimmy Carr and Nate Carr, made it as far as the Olympics, with Nate earning a bronze medal in 1984. His dad, Solomon Carr, was a high school wrestler in Pennsylvania, where he set state records, and is assistant wrestling coach at Owings Mills. It seems only natural that Taran should follow in their footsteps. But the senior, while wrestling with great success — he's 16-0 in Maryland this season and 16-1 overall, losing only to the then-No.

Led by Owings Mills' three-time state champ and 1992-1993 All-Metro Wrestler of the Year, Grant Johnson, a team of Maryland's best wrestlers continued to earn nationwide respect.Johnson led 2-1 before he was pinned early in the second period of his title bout against New York state runner-up Mitch Clark in the three-day Folkstyle National High School championships at Pittsburgh's Duquesne University. He added Folkstyle All-American honors to his seventh-place, All-American effort in last summer's freestyle nationals.

Delaware powers Hodgson Vo-Tech, William Penn and St. Mark's were 1-2-3 heading into today's quarterfinal round of the fifth annual, 22-team Hammond Invitational Tournament. South Carroll (59.5, fifth) trailed Kent County (61.50) after the Cavaliers advanced Kellen Weber (119), Dan Patterson (130), Josh Wampler (135), Bryan Hamper (140), Kevin Clark (145) and Chris Currence (171) into today's scheduled 9 a.m. rounds. Defending champ Joey Sargent (160) of Mount St. Joseph (sixth) improved to 22-1 with his 15th pin, and Mike Faust (heavyweight)

Legendary boys soccer coach Don Shea, who guided Oakland Mills to eight states titles in 18 seasons before stepping down in 2003, will return to coach the Scorpions next fall. Shea has remained at the school as a social studies teacher and now gets the chance to coach alongside his son, Trevor, who is the program's junior varsity coach. "Obviously, his resume speaks for itself," said Oakland Mills athletic director Troy Stevenson. "All along, he has been teaching at the school, so the kids like him and respect him. Coming back, there's a high level of excitement, and he brings instant credibility back to the program.

WRESTLER OF THE YEAR Avi Friedman Owings Mills Friedman went undefeated for the second consecutive season, going 34-0 to improve his record the past two seasons to 72-0. The 112-pound senior is 109-4 in his varsity career. "His life is dedicated to wrestling," River Hill coach Brandon Lauer said after watching Friedman pin two-time state champ Scott Mantua of River Hill in the Class 2A-1A state final. It was the first time in Mantua's four-year varsity career that he had been pinned.