Five Towson wrestlers earned two pins each as the host Generals swept Perry Hall and Parkville in a tri-meet on Thursday night.
After Perry Hall beat Parkville in the first match of the evening, the Generals defeated last year’s co-Baltimore County champion Perry Hall, 45-32. They capped off the night with a 47-33 victory over Parkville.
Braylon Lawson (113 pounds), Thomas Askey (120), Ethan Grace (138), Kenton Beeson (144) and Korben Suskin (157) all won both their matches with falls.
Mathew Joffe (126) had one of the six pins against Perry Hall and Suskin was the last of the Generals to pin a Gator. The senior captain used a double-leg takedown against Trevor Scott to take an early lead and ended the match with 10 seconds left in the first period.
“I saw the guy throw the Parkville kid [in the opening match] and all I was thinking was, ‘I’m not going to get thrown.’ Mid-match he was trying to throw it on me and I just didn’t let it happen. I had enough and I just finished,” Suskin said.
In the first three matches against Perry Hall, Lawson, Askey and Grace all scored takedowns in the first 20 seconds and earned first-period pins giving the Gators an 18-0 lead.
“We always say, ‘Go in like a ball of fire,’” Suskin said.
Towson coach PJ Lenhart preaches early aggression.
“We are always looking to be the aggressor, get our offense going and score the first point and wrestle our match,” Lenhart said.
At 150 pounds, Nick Toung relied on repeated aggression as he coasted to a 15-0 technical fall victory over Clay Reynolds with 50 seconds left in the first period.
“It was the quickest [tech fall] I’ve seen in a long time,” Lenhart said.
The Generals also got a 12-0 major decision from Ethan Jones.
Perry Hall was missing four starters who were injured in a match against Westminster, including defending 144-pound Baltimore County champion Justin Cavanaugh and Jordan Young, who was fifth at counties. Also missing were Gavin Young and Marcus Saxby.
“Usually, from 150 up, we usually dominate, but unfortunately our starters are not here,” Perry Hall coach Steve Amenda said.
“I know they had some key injuries, so I know that definitely plays a factor. I think with a full strength lineup it would be interesting to see how our dual would go. Maybe it would go a different way,” Lenhart said. “I’m not sure, but at the end of the day we can only wrestle who is in front of us and we got the job done. I’m just happy with how we wrestled.”
In addition to a forfeit win from Simon Datwin (106) to end the match, the Gators got a 12-2 major decision from Adam Ferrante (132), a 16-5 major decision from Clayton Hosier (165) over Mustapha Sesay and pins from Victor Marks-Jenkins (190), Jayden Barnes (215) and Muhammad Al Mallak (285).
Marks-Jenkins, the state’s top-ranked wrestler at 215, also had a pin at 190 in the win over Parkville. He is a two-time state champion whose only prep loss came in the state semifinals as a freshman.
He built an 11-2 lead before pinning Towson’s Luke Roche in under a minute.
“Obviously, he probably can pin in the first 15 seconds, but to make it worth it and to get some work in at least three takedowns and then a pin is what we go for,” Amenda said.
Towson improved to 7-1 in dual meets, with its only loss coming against Chesapeake-BC. Although Lenhart employed the same lineup in both matches on Tuesday, there is plenty of depth in the wrestling room.
“They say iron sharpen iron, so we just try to build practice partners that we want to see so if you help your partner get better it makes you better,” Lenhart said. “We had 61 come out this year, so we’ve got a lot of kids. I think we only had about 40 last year, so a huge increase in numbers, wrestling is getting popular across the board and we’ve got a lot of new kids to wrestling come in this year and that’s been nice to see.”
Suskin surely appreciates the extra bodies.
“Practice is hardest it’s ever been this year,” said the fourth-year grappler.
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