Published: March 03, 2008 10:29 am         

Southern nails down Region title

FROSTBURG - Southern rebounded from its only loss of the season to win the Maryland 2A-1A West Region Tournament by an impressive 32 points and will send a total of seven wrestlers to next weekend's State Tournament.

Mountain Ridge earned a second-place finish while Northern was ninth. The Rams scored a total of 156 points and the Miners finished with 124. The 32-point differential was the largest gap between any two finishes. The Huskies finished one point ahead of Winters Mill for ninth, and Allegany (16 points) and Fort Hill (11) finished 15th and 16th, respectively.

The Rams had three individual champions in the five lightest divisions with Lex Ozias collecting a 7-4 decision in the 112-pound division, George Scheffel won a 7-3 decision in 125 and Jakob Scheffel won 6-4 in overtime in 130. Sean Sisler (85) earned a pin in 1:26 to win the 285.

Matt Armstrong advances to states by finishing second in 103, and Ryan Bennett (189) finished fourth to also advance.

Mountain Ridge had six wrestlers qualify for the state tournament, with two wrestlers winning individual titles. Stephen Whetstone (140) won a title with a 3-2 decision, while Noah DeVore (215) won a 6-2 decision for his title.

Aaron Patterson (135) and Derrick Sisk (285) picked up second place finishes, and Glenn Johnson (112) and Justin Blubaugh (171) both finished fourth to qualify for a chance at a state title.

Three wrestlers from Northern earned berths in the state tournament. Andy Ganoe (152) and Dustin Stough (160) both finished second, and Kameron Kamp was fourth in the 103 division.

The Maryland State Tournament begins on Friday and will conclude on Saturday, at the University of Maryland-College Park. The top four wrestlers in each weight class advance to the state tourney.

A list of championship, third-place and fifth-place matches can be found on today's scoreboard page on 7B.