COLLEGE PARK - Shortly after Pat Carey ran up each of the 57 steps at Cole Field House, Ron Vaughters found an empty spot on the mat and waited for his world to fall apart.

On this night, though, the familiar backed into the distance.

Carey narrowly avoided a third consecutive loss in the state final, and Vaughters' second championship finally fell into his arms Saturday as Anne Arundel County and the Class 4A/3A East Region played a strong hand at the state tournament.

"State champ," said Carey, who edged Walt Whitman's Taylor Leighton, 5-3, for North County's first state championship since 1994....