"It's like a brotherhood," said the junior St. Mary's transfer, who experienced the death of his mother. "I've gotten a lot of support."

by Lem Satterfield

Junior 119-pounder Graceson Pastirik epitomizes this year's Mount St. Joseph wrestling team in that he is youthful, but not inexperienced, and aggressive, but as yet, relatively unknown.

Pastirik and the Gaels, in general, are this season's relative understudies during a year in which their star-studded, two-time, defending Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference rivals, McDonogh, have taken center stage.

But during Friday night's 49-18 victory over Baltimore County's seventh-ranked two-time defending dual meet champion Hereford, Pastirik represented a quick-study in how the Gaels, ranked No. 2 by DigitalSports, are quickly making a name for themselves.

Pastirik sparked the Gaels' to the winning of the first five bouts for a 22-0 lead, and wins in seven of the first eight bouts for an advantage of 31-3, by earning his 11th straight victory, 13-7, over the Bulls' Max Rosen.

Pastirik set the tone for his match in particular, and the Gaels, overall, by taking Rosen straight to his back while scoring his first of four takedowns for a 5-0 first period lead.

A transfer from St. Mary's of Annapolis,  Pastirik was coming off of Thursday night's upset of the Saints' Kenneth Green, who entered with an 11-1 record after having scored a 45-second pin over Calvert Hall's Nik Gialamas for the title in the Ed Peery Invitational at Annapolis Area Christian.

"I've known Kenneth for a long time, and when I was at St. Mary's as a freshman, he always used to beat me -- even though he was only in seventh grade. Everyone thought I was going lose that match, but I feel like I went out and took it to him in front of all of our friends," said Pastirik, who rose to 19-3 on the year in sparking a run that was capped by a 61-second pin by Kevin Bohlman (140).

"I've been really working hard and stepping it up lately," said Pastirik, who experienced the death of his mother, Sissy, this past April. "St. Joe's is like a brotherhood. I'm so glad that I made the switch. I've gotten a lot of support from all of my friends, the coaches, and the teachers. Everyone's been great."

Also winning for Mount St. Joseph was MIAA A Conference and private schools state runner-up Frankie Goodwin (112) as well as the Gaels' Alex Rice (103), each of them earning pins.

"We're sort of a team of sophomore and mostly juniors, so not everyone thinks we're that good," said Goodwin, a sophomore. "Tonight, I think we showed that we're a solid team and I thought that, overall, we wrestled really well."

Following Pastirik was Gaels' sophomore Gino Pollack (125), who scored a takedown with 34 seconds left to hand Sean Gunn (4-1) his first loss, 5-3.

Next, teammate Benny Schaufele (130) scored seven of his 10 nearfall points in the second period of his 16-0 technical fall victory over Jimmy Volz.

Danny Orem (135) also came through with a technical fall, scoring eight nearfall points and three takedowns.

Gaels' senior Edwin Jackson (160) nailed down a pin, and senior Will Selba (152) grounded out a 9-5 decision over Ian Thompson before the Bulls' three-time state champion, Josh Asper (171), built an 11-1 lead over Matt Mullett before sticking him in 3:52.

Asper improved to 5-0 on the year with his 55th consecutive win, and the 119th of his career against only seven losses. Asper's last defeat was an 8-7 decision as a sophomore against Hammond's graduated three-time state titlist Vince Taweel at 140 pounds.

The Bulls (4-1) did not get their first victory until the 145-pound match, when county champion Jeremy Keil (5-0) earned a hard-fought, 10-3 decision over Pat Downey.

Also winning for the Bulls were Taylor Gload (215) with a pin, and Chris Ahgazarian (189), with a 14-9 decision over Pete Jones.


Mount St. Joseph  49,   Hereford 18.
 

119- Graceson Pastirik (M) d. Max Rosen, 13-7 (3-0, M)
125- Gino Pollack (M) d. Sean Gunn, 5-3 (6-0, M)
130- Benny Schaufele (M) tf. Jimmy Volz, 16-0 (11-0, M)
135- Danny Orem (M) tf. Justin Parks, 17-1 (16-0, M)
140- Kevin Bohlman (M) p. Alex Stafford, 1:01 (22-0, M)
145- Jeremy Keil (H) d. Pat Downey, 10-3 (22-3, M)
152- Will Selba (M) d. Ian Thomson, 9-5 (25-3, M)
160- Edwin Jackson (M) p. Kevin Abel, 1:59 (31-3, M)
171- Josh Asper (H) p. Matt Mullett, 3:52 (31-9, M)
189- Chris Ahgazarian (H) d. Pete Jones, 14-9 (31-12, M)
215- Taylor Gload (H) p. R.J. Schmidtz, 1:16 (31-18, M)
285- Karl Green (M) by forfeit (37-18, M)
103- Alex Rice (M) p. Matt Swiger, 2:32 )43-18, M)
112- Frankie Goodwin (M) p. Tim Gunn, 1:58 (49-18, M)