Asper Wins Fourth Straight Wrestling Title

By: Keith Mills

In the 38 years of the state public school wrestling tournament, there have been only three wrestlers who won four championships. Hereford's Josh Asper is the third and most recent name on that short list after beating Justin Bowersox of Thomas Stone last weekend to win the 171-pound championship. In his remarkable four-year run, Asper won championships at 135, 145, 160 and 171 pounds.

He joins Matt Slutzky of Aberdeen and Steve Kessler of Owings Mills as the state's only four-time public school champs. Slutzky won his fourth state title in 1992 at Western Maryland College (now McDaniel), and when he did, he ripped off his headgear and leaped into the arms of his father Dick, an Aberdeen icon and a member of the state's wrestling Hall of Fame.

Kessler, now the coach at Archbishop Curley, won his fourth in 1997 when he beat Nathan Rickman of Southern-Garrett, 6-2. When the match was over, Steve's brothers -- Kevin, Mike and Greg -- embraced coach Guy Pritzker’s champ.

Asper was more subdued in his celebration. He shook hands with Bowersox, calmly took off his headgear, embraced coach Ron Causey and acknowledged a crowd that stood in appreciation of the Hereford senior's 37th win this year without a loss.

Asper's win came at Cole Field House in College Park, where he will wrestle next year at the University of Maryland for the team that won the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament last weekend for the first time in 38 years.

Coach Pat Santoro is in his fifth year at Maryland, and the former All-American at the University of Pittsburgh is trying to lure Baltimore's best wrestlers to College Park. Asper will join Lou Ruland of St. Mary's in Annapolis, the 2005 Maryland Independent Schools state champ; Ricky Tippett of McDonogh, a two-time state champ for coach Pete Welsh's Eagles; Jon Kohler, a three-time Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association champ for the Mount St. Joseph Gaels; and Andrew Schaffler and James Knox of Dulaney.

Schaffler won the state public school championship at 135 pounds in 2003 and Knox the 112-pound title in 2004.

Jeff Welsh and Steve Herbert were Hereford's first two state champs in 1970, the first year of the public school tournament. Herbert won two state crowns while Don Anderson, Glenn Allen and D.J. Scarponi won one each, and now comes Asper, who is also one of four public school wrestlers to finish this year's season unbeaten.

Woodlawn's Deonte Carter (125 pounds) finished 34-0 and Bubby Graham of Annapolis (160 pounds) finished 37-0 after pinning Tom Stewart of Harford County to win his third state championship. Avi Friedman (103 pounds) of Owings Mills also finished 37-0 after defeating Cameron Kirby of River Hill, though Friedman's Eagles team lost the Class 2A-1A state championship to Glenelg, which received wins from Danny Bichner, Chris Stinnett and Tim Chase.

Issue 3.11: March 13, 2008