After Duals Debacle, Owings Mills Hungrier Than Ever

As the high school wrestling scene amps up for its county, region and state tournaments in the upcoming weeks, the wrestlers themselves have even more of a reason to fear their opponents from Owings Mills.

Like they needed any.

Eagles wrestlers are already talented, strong and experienced, but you can add one more attribute to that list: they now have a chip on their shoulder—and it’s a large one. 

After feeling like they were dealt an unjust hand at last week’s , Owings Mills is more eager than ever to go out and right a perceived wrong. They are stronger as a squad as well.

“We all got a lot hungrier. The loss brought the whole team together,” 189-pounder Kenny Nunez said. “We were already close before it happened but that brought us even closer. When we wrestle as a team we wrestle for each other, we don’t wrestle for ourselves. Losing in that way, it kind of brought us together. That was our last match wrestling as a team.”

The Eagles wasted no time taking out their frustrations. After falling at the dual meet Saturday, they were in search of a small form of payback against a solid Hereford squad who they had beaten—albeit competitively—earlier in the season.

However, this time Owings Mills walloped the Bulls by a final score of 51-12. Even head coach Guy Pritzker was a bit surprised.

“Here we wrestled Saturday, and they were hungry Monday,” Pritzker said, taken aback by his squad’s desire to compete just days after suffering a crushing defeat. “They were ready to wrestle.”

The Winters Mill loss—Owings Mills’ first of the season—lodged a pit in the stomach of every Eagle, but the defeat understandably hit hardest with 160-pound senior Larry Johnson, whose disqualification due to an illegal body slam handed Winters Mill an early lead and swung the momentum in its favor.

“I felt like someone had just took something from me. It’s the worst feeling in the world,” said Johnson, who had virtually locked up a win, up 10-1 with 50 seconds to play before the disqualification.  

Johnson explained that the move was necessary because had he not put down his opponent, Allen Corbin, with such force, he was liable to be on the wrong end of a two-point takedown. He also believed that the referee, deceived by Corbin’s loud scream upon hitting the mat, interpreted that Johnson’s intent was to harm his opponent with that move—a motive that simply did not exist.

“I didn’t mean to intentionally slam him,” Johnson said. “I don’t wrestle to hurt anyone. I go out to win and do what I got to do for my team.”

However, the result did more than just take away just points from Owings Mills. It changed their attitude for the rest of the match.

“I felt like our team had been cheated because things like that happen all the time and for the ref to make that ruling where Larry gets disqualified; it didn’t seem right,” Nunez said. “After that, our spirits were down. We weren’t wrestling levelheaded, we wrestled angry. We didn’t wrestle the way we normally wrestle.

“Now we are ready. We are going to the county tournament and show everybody that we are ready.”

It’s that chip on the shoulder that is going to make every individual Owings Mills wrestler a force to be reckoned with from here on out.

Said Johnson, “I’m very hungry. This could possibly be my last year ever wrestling, so I want to go out with a state championship. I’ve been wrestling for eight years and this is what it’s for. This is the reason why you wrestle—to be the state champion.”