The Arundel Wildcats, down 15-6 through five matches, rallied off six straight victories en route to a 45-27 victory over Wilde Lake in Columbia, Md. Friday night.

Arundel received four falls, a decision and a forfeit in those six straight victories, turning a once nine-point lead for Wilde Lake into a 24-point lead for Arundel.

But before Arundel sealed the dual meet victory, junior 112-pounder Logan Reece wrestled his first match of the season at 112. His opponent: Wilde Lake state-champion Alex Polonsky.

After trading a takedown and a reversal in the first period, it was Polonsky who put Reece on his back for points in the second period, taking a 6-3 lead into the final period. However, Reece battled tough on top and received near-fall points of his own in the third period and with only a minute left in the bout, the score was tied, 7-7.

Instead of attempting to ride Polonsky out for the final 30 seconds to try to force overtime, Reece let Polonsky up, giving him an 8-7 lead with little time remaining. However, Reece finished the job and got the takedown with only 10 seconds remaining, holding on for the 9-8 victory.

“I knew what I was up for so I had high expectations,” Reece said of his victory over the state-champion. “I knew going into the match that neutral was going to be my strength so I was just wrestling smart all of the third period. I was down and knew I had to wrestle smart so I kept letting him up and getting the takedown.”

“Logan dropping to 112 was big,” said Arundel Head Coach Jim Rubush. “I was more worried about that match then I was about the dual meet to be honest with you. Logan is looking to win a state title at 112. He’s a returning 112-pounder and of course Polonksy is real tough, a returning state-champion.

“We had this date circled at the beginning of the year because he is going to be down at this weight class and Wilde Lake, Polonsky, that’s the guy you have to beat and it worked out for us. It got us some momentum. The kids wrestled solid.”

Coach Rubush credits the tough schedule and the amount of matches they have wrestled recently for the way his wrestlers battled Friday night.

“They got seasoned pretty good over the past couple weeks… what I like to call ‘battle-hard.’ If nothing else, they wrestled tough, you can’t deny that, they wrestled hard.”

Arundel, despite a few losses, are still in the hunt for the regional duals.

“This was a big one but we got a big match with Old Mill next Friday and if we happen to beat Old Mill, it would make things really interesting in our county,” Coach Rubush said with a laugh. “Stephen Decatur and River Hill, I think, are a class above all of us (in the 3A/4A East Region) and they’ve proven that at the Spalding duals, and the rest of it, who shows up that day?”

Wilde Lake will host county-rivals Oakland Mills and Hammond for a tri-meet on Tuesday and Arundel will be at rival Old Mill next Friday.

No. 19 Arundel 45, No. 15 Wilde Lake 27

103 – Ethan Eckley (WL) pin A. Johnson (A), 0:51 [6-0]
112 – Logan Reece (A) dec. Alex Polonsky (WL), 9-8 [6-3]
119 – V. Kindall (A) dec. Jordan Trihn (WL), 12-7 [6-6]
125 – David Lewis (WL) pin W. Macquillan (A), 2:34 [12-6]
130 – Ethan Trihn (WL) dec. Justin Goodwin (A), 18-11 [15-6]
135 – F. Corona (A) pin Jodi Faulkner (WL), 4:29 [15-12]
140 – Tyler Goodwin (A) pin Tola Morkinyo (WL), 2:37 [15-18]
145 – Steve Kidwell (A) dec. Marcus Coffield (WL), 4-1 [15-21]
152 – N. Asbury (A) pin R. Brown (WL), 2:18 [15-27]
160 – C. Mihlhorn (A) wbf. [15-33]
171 – B. Willis (A) pin J. Pearlman (WL), 0:23 [15-39]
189 – Alvin Harris (WL) wbf. [21-39]
215 – D. Bagley (A) pin Harry Ndiang (WL), 1:14 [21-45]
285 – Zathy Ndiang (WL) pin L. Brownlee (A), 1:12 [27-45]