SMWC All-Stars Capture 2000 CAWL Crown

Damascus, Maryland
March 5, 2000

The Gwynn Park HS based SMWC All-Stars captured the Capital Area Wrestling League's 2000 Tournament Championships at Damascus HS Sunday, March 4th. The CAWL is considered the strongest youth league in the Washington DC Metro region. SMWC finished with an impressive 6 individual champions and a 64.5 point margin over runner-up Gaithersberg. The team qualified 21 wrestlers to advance to the Maryland/Northern Virginia Beltway Championships.

SMWC virtually dominated the tournament with 11 members making it to the finals. At many weights, SMWC wrestlers were wrestling against each other for placement or, in the case of Jamie Clark and Kyle Mason at 55 lbs., for the championship.

SMWC's big gun continued to be Steve Ratley (at right) who was in totally charge no matter who he wrestled.

One other item of note was that two sets of SMWC parents, the Nucci's and the Black's were both back and forth constantly between the CAWL Chs and the Maryland HS states going on at the same time about 40 miles away. Two former All-Stars, Garrett Black, and Marchello Nucci were in contention at states while SMWC's Eli Black won the CAWL and Sonny Nucci finished 3rd. We took a of Marchello Sr. to prove it but Bob Black was just too swift to be captured on film.

The top six team scores were:

SMWC			301.5
Gaithersberg		237
Damascus		235
Springfield Knights	145
Olney			136
Mt Airy			130.5 

SMWC Champions
Jamie Clark
Ronnie Mills (above left)
Julian Lane
Eli Black
Steve Ratley
Brent Jones

SMWC Member and University of Maryland Wrestler Brandon York, fresh from winning the ACC championships, presented the CAWL individual and team awards. Brandon, shown with SMWC Coach Bruce Gabrielson, wrestled for Damascus during his junior league years and was a 2x Maryland HS State Champion.