Wrestlers aiming for third spot
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Before a packed crowd at the Wayland field house, the Lincoln-Sudbury matmen fought hard but were defeated 45-16, in a match that was decidedly closer than the score indicates.
The loss, which dropped the Warriors Dual County League record to 6-2 (13-7 overall), eliminated them from winning the league title but still keeps them in the hunt for a third-place finish. That will be decided when the Warriors travel to Weston for a January 30 showdown against the Wildcats in the famous Pit. Currently, both Weston and L-S's losses are to the same two teams - Westford Academy and Wayland.
During the Wayland match, L-S lost six matches by a total of nine points, resulting in an 18-point swing in team score, unfortunately, in favor of the Wayland Warriors.
The match was exciting, fan-packed, and not a result like typical years past, when Wayland would blow out L-S using mostly JV wrestlers. ``I was disappointed in the loss as it took us out of contention for a DCL title, but I was pleased with the performances from our wrestlers. The loss gives us a chance to refocus our goals now to the DCL tournament, sectionals, and newly formed Dual Meet State Tournament, in which teams compete in dual meet fashion, rather than individual scoring, to crown a state champion,'' said coach Brian Quinn. ``One thing that I hope my wrestlers realize after this tough loss is that Wayland is not better than us as a team, they simply performed better than us tonight. Our guys have to realize and believe that they can beat anyone on any day. They'll get another shot at some of the Wayland wrestlers and all other members of the DCL at the DCL league tournament on February 3, at Newton South.''
The match at Wayland started out at 145 and junior John Starr, sporting a 11-11 record on the season, got L-S off to a great start with an decisive 10-2 major decision over Zach Sperling. In the match, Starr recorded four takedowns and Sperling's only points were scored on escapes.
Wayland would win the next three matches to go ahead by a score of 12-4. Wayland's captain Russell Lyons, at 152, pinned Cyrus Elias in 1:33 of the first period.
The 160 match was a battle which wasn't decided until the last eight seconds, in which Wayland's Max Lewin scored a reversal to secure an 8-6 win over L-S captain Nico von Stackelberg.
At 171, it was Wayland's Tucker Bridgeo who would secure a 7-6 victory over senior Eric Pennington to bring the lead to 12-4.
L-S got on the board again at 189, when senior captain Justin Nicholson secured a first-period pin over Wayland's Tyler Sheffles to cut the lead to 12-10.
Wayland would win again at 215 as senior Derek Richards fought hard with an injured shoulder but was pinned by Wayland's Christian Pena in the second period.
At heavyweight is was L-S senior Jesse Smith, who continued to wrestle near flawlessly securing the pin in 1:25 of the first period and cutting the lead to 18-16 in favor of Wayland.
That was as close as the L-S matmen would get to winning again, losing the next seven matches for a final score of 45-16. At 103, it was freshman Mike Howd, who lost a hard-fought 13-12 decision to Wayland's Gregg Eng. The match was back and forth for the entire six minutes and wasn't decided until the last whistle.
At 112, senior Evan Biller fought hard for all six minutes but lost to Wayland's John Kim by a score of 8-1. At 119, Steven Baez was pinned with just under 20 seconds left in the match by Wayland junior Mike Testa.
In the 125 match, it was a battle of the Gareliks, Sudbury's David vs. Wayland's Ben. Ben would win this close decision by a 5-4 score. Ben earned a late penalty point on an illegal hold to secure the victory. Senior Ryan McCann fought hard but was beaten by Wayland captain and senior Chris Donalds in the first period.
Junior Jeff McKinnon suffered his first loss of the season, wrestling in the 135-pound weight class and falling to Wayland senior Jarod Doyan 10-7. In the final match, junior Mike Pace fell to Wayland's Matt Lombardo, a defending sectional champion, 4-3 to conclude the night.
On Saturday, the Warriors got things rolling again with a strong performance in the Weymouth Invitational tournament, finishing fifth of 22 teams and crowning two individual champions. The Warriors were led by McKinnon, who was a champion in the 135-pound weight class and was also named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler on the day. Von Stackelberg was also crowned a champion at 160. Von Stackelberg defeated Walpole's Tom Fraser by a score of 10-3 in the finals.
McKinnon, who was the fourth seed in the weight class, started with two pins before beating the number one seed Ä Ross O' Toole of Weymouth Ä in the semifinals by a score of 17-12, to advance to the finals.
McKinnon would defeat Minuteman's Dean Crimaldi by a score of 18-11 to secure of the championship. ``Jeff wrestled extremely well and had a tough road to get to the finals,'' said Quinn. ``His determination and conditioning were two key factors in his victories. Whether he is winning by 10 or losing by 10 he is always pressing the action and looking to expose weaknesses in his opponents. It showed in his semifinals victory over O'Toole, a two time defending sectional champion. He took O'Toole out of his game and pressed the action from the start to finish. If you wrestle that way, usually you are victorious.''
Also competing and placing for the Warriors were seniors McCann and Smith, who placed fifth and sixth, respectively, and Starr, who was fourth at 145. McCann was a winner by pin over Tyler James of Malden Catholic to secure fifth place. On the day his record was 4-2. Smith, who wrestled in the 285-pound weight class, would fall to New Bedford's Kiernan Murphy 7-3 in the final match of the night for a sixth-place finish. On the day Smith was 3-3. Smith's record on the season is 17-5.
Starr would finish fourth after losing to Brookline's Alex Richards by a score of 5-4. On the day Starr would secure three wins by pin. Contributing to the fifth-place team finish but not placing in the top six for the Warriors were 103 Chris Stoll, 112 Jordan Syatt, 119 Biller, 125 Matt Hardardt, 140 Mike Pace, 152 Sean Walsh, 171 Evan Whitney, 189 Chris MacKinnon, and 215 John Tylko. ``I was very satisfied with our team's performance and happy for Nico and Jeff's victories. One exciting thing about the fifth-place finish is that nine out of the 14 wrestlers who competed for us are coming back again next year. There is a bright future ahead for the wrestling team at Lincoln-Sudbury. I just hope the kids realize this and take advantage of every opportunity they can use to improve,'' said Quinn.
The Warriors traveled to West Roxbury to battle non-league opponent Catholic Memorial on Wednesday and then head to Weston on the 30th for the DCL showdown with the Wildcats.
