On a day when there was to be no snow, two tough Frederick county schools visited Blakefield for a double dual. Up first for the Dons were the Titans of Tuscarora. In a match that see-sawed back and forth between the two teams the 215 match started with Loyola clinging to a 33-30 with no heavy weight to finish the match. Sophomore Ryan Black wrestling up a weight class took on Brian Stup of Tuscarora and in a high scoring affair prevailed 18-15. Next up was junior Colin Marshall who also wrestled up a weight class and pinned his opponent to seal the win for Loyola 42-30.

The second match was much more of a struggle against the #4 ranked Urbana Hawks. Boasting two state champions and 4 state ranked wrestlers on the team, The Hawks dominated the weigh classes of 125-145, and 189-285 and negated some fine efforts by the Dons to finish 37-31 and take home the win.

The upcoming weeks has two road challenges in store for the Dons. First is Maryland’s Number one team Mount St Joe in Wednesday and then on Friday is second place Archbishop Spalding.

The Mount Mat Madness tournament is probably the toughest tournament in Maryland and serves as guide for teams as to the level of wrestling required to be champions. Going into the MIAA’s and MIS tournaments the Dons found out exactly how far they have yet to go to crown some champions. Senior Gus Moreno was the only Don to place in the tournament, but all the wrestlers Loyola entered got a chance to test themselves against some of the best wrestlers in Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Pennsylvania.
The next week saw Loyola back on the dual meet trail and taking on the Curley Friars. Curley currently is the second place team in the MIAA and the 3rd ranked team in the Baltimore Sun’s Metro rankings. Incidentally six MIAA A conference teams are ranked in the Sun’s top 15-- your Loyola Dons are currently 13th-- in what by any measure is the toughest conference in Maryland. The Curley dual saw the Dons come out on the short end of a 40-22 score. However a bright spot and a milestone was senior Gus Moreno getting his 100th win with a 11-0 major decision over Avery Williams.

This week will see the Dons in their last home matches of the season. Wednsday night is Senior night at Loyola and the Dons will be taking on the Cardinals of Calvert Hall. Saturday we host two tough Frederick County powerhouses in Tuscarora and Urbana. Urbana is currently the 5th ranked team in the state and boasts two state champions on its team in Adam Krop and Pete Tatanish.

The finals of the Iron Horse duals came down to two Jesuit High schools facing off as The Loyola Dons and the Georgetown Hoya’s won their respective pools and faced off in the championship Saturday night. Unfortunately for the Dons Georgetown was just too much for the Dons as they ran away with the title and a 51-12 victory. Still, it was a good tournament for the Dons who went 6-1 over the two days and ran their dual meet record to 20- 4.

The tournament started out on a high note as Loyola faced off with MIAA A conference rival John Carroll. In a match that see-sawed back and forth dramatically Loyola took a lead of 31-17 following Matt Hnatiuk’s pin at 171. KNowing that Loyola would be giving a forfeit at 285 the match came down to Colin Marshall and the 215 match against John Carroll’s Kyle Miele. A win by John Carroll here would give them an insurmountable lead going into the final bout. In a bloody bout that was stopped several times for blood time Marshall gutted out an 8-7 win to seal the deal for the Dons.

Significantly for the Dons several wrestlers also reached the 20 win threshold. Freshman David Mohler improved to 24-1, Conan Schuster to 21-6, junior Mike Zito moved to 21-4, senior’s Will Flynn to 21-5, and Gus Moreno to 22-4. The next big test for the Dons will be the very challenging Mount Mat Madness tournament at Catonsville Community College this coming weekend. Information about the event can be found at the MMMVII site. Information about Loyola’s team and some other competitors can be found in this article in Pressboxonline.