Old Mill coach Jim Grim had an idea about a year and a half ago.
Grim remembered watching the University of Iowa wrestle outside a few years ago. He also watched earlier this year as the University of Nebraska played an outdoor volleyball match in front of 72,000 people. Why not, he thought, do this at the high school level?
Thursday night, through lots of hard work and passion — and a few donated NFL-style heaters — he saw his vision come true. In front of a crowd of about 750 people on a December night with temperatures in the low 40s, Grim’s Old Mill Patriots defeated Annapolis, 57-12, in an outdoor Anne Arundel County league match. It was the first such match in county history and is believed to be the first outdoor wrestling match ever in Maryland.
“I’m really happy that our administration, the Board of Education and [county head of athletics] Clayton Culp gave their approval for this,” Grim said. “It’s been over a year in the planning. I’m happy our kids got to experience this.”
The mat was placed just inside the running track, while the fans sat in the stands of Old Mill’s football stadium and watched the action. There was plenty of heat from high powered blowers on the field, but those in the stands were not as lucky. No one seemed to mind, though.
Old Mill (22-1) wasted no time jumping out on top in the match, winning the first five matches to take a 21-0 lead. The best of those matches was at 120 pounds, where Old Mill’s Keon Gavin had to score two points on a reversal as time expired to tie his match at 11. He got two more reversal points in overtime to defeat the Panther’s Carmine Zimmerelli, 13-11.
“It came down to the end and who wanted it more, and I guess it was me,” Gavin said. “I was on the bottom in overtime, and I tried to stand up. Unfortunately, I couldn’t but I did get a [reversal] on him.”
Annapolis finally got on the board at 138 when Teddy Sfakiyanudis turned Old Mill’s Montrell Washington late in the third period and pinned him to win a match he trailed 9-8 in. The Panthers added to their win total in the next match, when Myles Rankin pinned the Patriots’ John Asvestas 3:10 into their 144-pound match.
Unfortunately for the Panthers, those were their only wins of the night. Old Mill, which recorded seven pins on the night, was especially strong in the upper weights, where Dominic Hurley (165 pounds), Noel Norman White (175 pounds), Deven Parry (190) and Xavien Mackell (215) all won by pins. R.J. Duncan, Old Mill’s state champion heavyweight, was the benefit of a forfeit in his match.
In spite of not being able to wrestle, Duncan was still grateful to have been able to take part in the historic event.
“I would be disappointed, but I’m just glad my team came out here and won 57-12 against a good team,” Duncan said. “We heard about this before the season happened and we were all excited. This is the first time this has happened in Maryland. We worked hard in the wrestling room this week, and we came out ready to wrestle.”
Annapolis coach Tom Sfakiyanudis was glad his team got to participate but wasn’t really happy with the outcome.
“I thought the event was great. I loved the outdoor thing and that we did something different, but I wasn’t really pleased with how we wrestled,” Sfakiyanudis said. “We had a lot of close matches where the score could have gone the other way, but they definitely out-wrestled us tonight. Hats off to Old Mill.”
Old Mill 57, Annapolis 12
106: Sudama (OM) p Unama, 3:56; 113: Johnson (OM) p Joebchen, :52; 120: Gavin (OM) d Zimmereli, 13-11 OT: 126: Kahn (OM) d Fermite, 10-5; 132: Church (OM) d Frantz, 5-0; 138: Sfakiyanudis (AN) p Johnson, 4:41; 144: Rankin (AN) p Asvestas, 3:10; 150: Salas (OM) p Koehan, 5-1; 157: Martini (OM) d Michalaski-Cooper, 3-2; 165: Hurley (OM) p Snavely, 1:01; 175: Norman-Williams (OM) p Lamm-Knipscher, 335; 190: Perry (OM) p Reinhart, 1:31; 215; Mackell (OM) p Smotherman, 1:36; Hvy: Duncan (OM) wbf.
