Fearing Tyler Goodwin is only natural

Arundel junior Tyler Goodwin strikes fear into most of his opponents.

And that’s just the way that he likes it.

For it is his ultimate goal to be mean and nasty, especially to rivals who already are afraid of him.

“Besides [Chesapeake’s] Alex Rice, I’ve pinned and teched everybody. I beat him 7-4 the first time and the second time it was like 5-1,” said Goodwin.

“It’s the biggest advantage to have everybody be scared of wrestling you because they’re not going to be wrestling on their game at all,” said Goodwin. “So I like to go after them and sort of give them what they’re afraid of right away.”

Goodwin was his ferocious self in rising to 32-0 with his 23nd pin of the year and his 116th career victory in his 130-pound quarterfinal bout on Friday night — the first of two days for the 21-team, Class 4A-3A East Regional Tournament at Howard County’s Wilde Lake High.

Goodwin took only 17 seconds to dispatch of John Holthaus, setting up Saturday’s semifinal bout opposite Old Mill’s Damien Sheldon.

A Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association Tournament champion when he competed for Mount St. Joseph as a freshman, Goodwin is a two-time Anne Arundel County champion who is pursuing his second consecutive regional crown after having been a Class 4A-3A state runner-up last season.

In last year’s Class 4A-3A state final, Goodwin lost, 4-3, after holding an early 2-0 lead on Urbana’s Adam Krop, whose victory earned him his third straight state title after having placed third as a freshman.

Goodwin finished with a record of 35-2 last year, his other loss being by a point in a come-from-behind victory by DeMatha’s private schools state champ, Pat Prada.

With Rice competing at 135 pounds, Goodwin’s most difficult competiton on Saturday will likely come from either River Hill’s Cameron Kirby or Reservoir’s Shawn Rowell.

A senior, Kirby earned his 36th win of the year against three losses on the year, as well as career victory No. 150 with a fall in 3:18 over North Harford’s Logan Smith. Rowell upset Kirby in last Saturday night’s Howard County finals.

A wrestler who has won the county tournament once, finished as runner-up once, and placed third twice, Kirby is after his fourth straight regional crown after having twice placed second at the state tournament and finished fourth at states once.

The tournament is comprised of teams from Anne Arundel, Howard, James M. Bennett’s of Wicomico County, and, Stephen Decatur of Worcester County.

Ron Vaughters’s “roller coaster” of a career back on track

Asked to describe his career in one word, Old Mill senior, Ron Vaughters could do it.

“Not normal,” is what he said.

Roller Coaster would also have sufficed.

As a freshman, he competed at 112 pounds, earning Anne Arundel County and Class 4A-3A East Regional titles.

As a 135-pound sophomore, Vaughters won the county and regional tournaments once more, along with Class 4A-3A states, the latter, by dethroning Urbana’s Peter Tatanish to avenge a loss — the result of a slam by Vaughters — from earlier in the year.

As a junior, Vaughters was upset during the regular season by eventual state titlist, Mark Colobucci, of Reservoir, this, on the way to repeating as county and regional champion.

At states, while holding a big lead on LaPlata’s Nick Romero, Vaughters was called for slamming his opponent and nearly was disqualified. Romero, however, rose from the mat and allowed the match to continue, as Vaughters’ hand was raised in victory for his third state title.

But it was more of the same for Vaughters this year, as he missed weight for last weekend’s county tournament, this, preventing him from being a four-time champion.

But on Friday night at Wilde Lake High of Howard County, Vaughters was back to his winning ways once more, pinning Reservoir’s David Kuper in 4 minutes, 35 seconds of their 145-pound quarterfinal bout of the Class 4A-3A East Regional Tournament.

In victory, Vaughters earned his 23rd win of the year against only two losses as well as his 142th career triumph.

“The way that I sum it up is that it’s about not thinking about what went wrong, and just focusing on the future. Never harping on the past,” said Vaughters, a student with a 3.2 grade point average and designs on attending the University of Maryland.

“But I mean, missing weights during the dual meets and the county tournament when you’re being counted on, I mean, that’s crazy,” said Vaughters. “But at the same time, you have to make sure that it’s sort of in the back of your mind so that you don’t repeat the same mistakes. I’ve been going hard, going at it, not slacking lately. In the end, it’s going to be the kids who want to be there who are going to be there. The bottom line is, in the end, I’m a guy who really wants to be there.”

The tournament is comprised of teams from Anne Arundel, Howard, James M. Bennett’s of Wicomico County, and, Stephen Decatur of Worcester County.