South Wrestling Trio All Win First County Titles

After Clarkstown South wrestler Austin Maurer won his first county title, Vikings Head Coach Brenden Rogers offered the junior some advice: go home, get some rest and eat.

A lot.

Maurer normally wrestlers in the 195-pound weight class, but on Saturday at Tappan Zee, he won the county title in the 182-pound division. Maurer's teammate, senior Paul Okeke, also won a county title after dropping down a weight class. He normally wrestles at 220, but he won Saturday at 195. 

“I thought those two guys dropping down would give us the best opportunity to have a good showing at the county tournament,” Rogers said.

It worked. They were part of a trio of Vikings who won their first county titles Saturday night, along with junior Hassan Auwater, who won the 170-pound weight class. Rogers knew by dropping down two of his wrestlers, it would not only give his wrestlers a chance to win county championships, but they could feed off each other’s momentum, as the three of them would also wrestle one after the other.

“I was just trying to keep it going,” Maurer said of being sandwiched between Auwater and Okeke.

What Rogers didn’t know about the three is that they recently adopted a nickname for the trio.

“That’s Death Row, the three of us,” Okeke said.

Okeke said he heard that a group of wrestlers at the University of Iowa use the nickname, although it’s been used for groups of wrestlers at other schools as well.

“The three of us all practice together and work together,” Okeke said. “We know at the end of a meet or a tournament, the three of us are going to be there and we’re all going to be tough for other teams.”

Rogers chuckled when he heard the nickname for the first time.

“That’s fine, especially if they keep doing what they’re doing,” he said. “They all work hard. They work together in practice a lot and help out the other guys too.”

With the three winners, South placed third in the nine-team meet Saturday night, behind North Rockland and Nanuet.

“Being in it with Nanuet and North Rockland, two great programs, we’re happy to be right there,” Rogers said.

Auwarter started off the three consecutive wins for the Vikings with a 6-3 decision against Nanuet’s Peter Smith. Last year Auwarter made the finals of the county tournament, but was pinned for the loss.

While Maurer wrestled his freshman and sophomore years, this year was the first time he actually qualified for the county tournament. Out of the South trio, he was the only one not ranked No. 1 in his respective weight class, although he wasn’t far behind with his No. 2 ranking.

“This year I had better conditioning and technique,” Maurer said.

Thanks to some upsets along the way, Maurer was actually the higher-ranked competitor in the finals, as he faced off against No. 4 seed Kurt Romano of Tappan Zee. Maurer won via pinfall toward the end of the first round.

“That was the game plan going into the match,” he said. “I though I could pin him in the first round, and I did.”

Like Auwarter, Okeke finished second in the county tournament last year.

“This year I was more prepared and conditioned,” he said. “I’m stronger and know what to expect.”

Okeke said that as of a week before Saturday’s meet he weighed about 210 pounds. To get down to the lower weight class, he said he ran for a half hour every day and increased his time until he was running 40 minutes a day. He also practiced in a sweatshirt.

Next up for the trio is the divisional tournament, although Rogers isn’t saying if Okeke and Maurer will return to their regular weight classes.

“I don’t want to say yet,” he said. “This worked well today, but they had success in the higher weight classes too. We’ll see.”