Wrestlers split four matches
By Staff reports
Tue Jan 06, 2009, 05:26 PM EST

SUDBURY - Saturday, just two days after New Years, five teams arrived at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School for the L-S wrestling quad. The event lasted around 12 hours and around 200 matches took place.
The Warriors took on Waltham, Malden Catholic, Westford Academy, and Framingham throughout the day.
Despite the long hours, the L-S wrestlers had a great day, especially Tom Spiegel, Carter Mode, and tri-captain Jeremy Lasky. The three won all of their matches, Spiegel pinning two of his three opponents, Mode pinning three out of four, and Lasky two out of four.

The team, heavily packed with underclassmen, showed a lot of future promise. Sophomores Eric Davis, Nick Murphy, Marc Pace, Dan Connaughton, and Zach Smerlas, all starters, combined to have a good day for 2011 class members.

Davis, winning two of his matches, defeated one opponent 17-0 and pinned the other, while Connaughton (in his first year wrestling) pinned to win in three of his four matches. Finally tri-captain Smerlas won three of his matches, pinning each time, and losing a tough fourth match in overtime to the states top-ranked wrestler, Ricky Caruso of Waltham, 6-4.

The morning flew by with solid wins for the Warriors against Waltham (51-24) and Malden Catholic (51-28). In the tough fight against Westford Academy, L-S lost by two points. Although it was heartbreaking, the wrestlers never gave up hope, as the match came down to the very last match. Losing 36-34, L-S could walk away with pride, in that it split the dual with Westford, with each team winning seven matches apiece.

The final match versus Framingham showed an even deeper strength of the L-S team. Match by match, the wrestlers fought against the dominating Framingham team score (53-23). They refused to lose without a few victories, and ended winning five of the last seven matches.  Tri-captain, Jeff Iuliano was the first to score - almost reaching a technical fall, but falling just short - followed by wins from the other two tri-captains, Lasky and Smerlas, as well as wins from fellow teammates Mode and Connaughton.
``Overall it was a good performance by our team,' said head coach Brian Quinn. ``We have to continually look to improve on each performance.'

The team, currently 5-3 for the season, looks to the future as it approaches a dual against Tyngsboro today and the Chelmsford Invitational on Saturday.