Two former Washington County wrestling standouts brought home NCAA All-American honors Saturday.
McDaniel senior Thomas Monn placed third at 149 pounds at the Division III championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, matching the best national performance in program history. Frostburg State freshman Tanner Halling took sixth at 133 pounds at the Division II tournament in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the highest national placement ever for the Bobcats.
Monn, a two-time Maryland Class 4A-3A state champion for North Hagerstown, raised the bar even higher during his time at McDaniel. He went 44-1 for the season and 146-12 for his career, setting program records for both single-season and career victories. He also became the school’s first three-time All-American, adding to his fifth-place showing last year at nationals and sixth-place finish as a freshman.
“It’s a good way to go out,” he said.
However, Monn was hoping for an even better ending. He wanted to become McDaniel’s first national wrestling champion.
After receiving the No. 1 seed in his weight class, Monn got off to a strong start Friday, winning 11-2 over Elmhurst’s Ryan Hinger in the first round and 5-3 over Chicago’s Maksim Mukhamedaliyev in the quarterfinals.
Monn then came out on the losing end of a triple-overtime thriller in the semifinals Saturday morning against Wisconsin-Whitewater’s Dominik Mallinder — a match that ended in a 5-5 tie after three overtime periods, with the winner ultimately being decided by two seconds of riding time.
“I just didn’t get to my offense, and I wrestled a little fearful. But it is what it is,” Monn said. “There’s nothing that you can do now. You can’t change it, so I just have to enjoy what I have right now.”
Still, it stung.
“Two seconds away from going to the finals,” Monn said. “I definitely should have been in the finals match.”
He didn’t let the loss keep him down for long. There was still plenty to fight for.
In the consolation semifinals, Monn built a 10-3 lead on Coast Guard’s Nate Fitt before pinning him late in the third period. And then in the bout for third place, he faced Mukhamedaliyev again, this time pinning him in 48 seconds to cap his career.
“It wasn’t really an emotion thing. It was more of not wanting to go out on a loss,” Monn said of his bounce-back performance. “My goal was to win (the national title), but it didn’t turn out that way, so my next step was to win all the other matches and end my career on top, go out with a bang.
“I’m thankful for everything,” he added. “Everything was an opportunity. People say that wrestling is more than a sport, which it really is. It helps you develop as a person, for me as a man. It’s a tough sport. Being able to do it at McDaniel, I wouldn’t choose a different place, no matter what college would have offered me something, no matter where it would have been.”
Meanwhile, Halling — a two-time 2A-1A state champ for Boonsboro — displayed his resilience at the Division II championships in Sioux Falls, where he was seeded No. 1 at 133 pounds with a 23-0 record.
After falling 4-3 to St. Cloud State’s Dominic Ducato in a first-round upset, he bounced back with three straight victories in the consolation bracket, including a 9-7 comeback win over Gannon’s Jeremiah Echevarria, the No. 2 seed, in a match that guaranteed All-American status for the winner and elimination for the loser. Halling scored the winning takedown with one second left in the match after trailing 7-1 midway through the second period.
For the tournament, Halling finished 3-3.
