SUDBURY - On Saturday, the Lincoln-Sudbury wrestling team competed in two tournaments, the Chelmsford Invitational and the Natick Junior Varsity Tournament.

Fourteen of the team's varsity wrestlers traveled to Chelmsford, while the rest went to Natick. The day turned out to be long for the varsity wrestlers, as the tournament lasted over 15 hours, and didn't conclude until almost 11 p.m.
The junior varsity wrestlers at Natick had a successful afternoon of competition. Four wrestlers - Grant Gonowich, Andrew Stranberg, Doug Lobacki, and Sean Kemp, all took third-place finishes in their respected weight classes. Two wrestlers, Tom Spiegel and Nathan Latta, finished in second place, and Harry Greenhouse took home a first-place finish, and ran his junior varsity record to 13-0 on the season.

At Chelmsford, the group of 14 wrestled over 50 matches. The tournament had 23 teams. There was a good mix of competition, with teams from four states - Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire.
L-S had three wrestlers place in the top six. Thirteen-14 wrestlers won at least one match and all competed hard throughout the day.

Although only three wrestlers placed in the top six, the perseverance of all the wrestlers after tough losses, allowed L-S to take 11th place overall with 81 team points.  Nick Murphy, Jordan Syatt, and Dan Connaughton all came back from early losses to earn a pin or win their next two matches.

Carter Mode and David Garelik battled hard and won their opening matches, but lost tough quarter finals matches against the top two ranked wrestlers in their weight classes.

Sophomore Luke Baldwin, had his best varsity tournament appearance, starting with a pin over his opponent from Hudson, and then after a tough loss won his next match and finished 2-2 on the day, narrowly missing out on placing by one match.

Eric Davis and Jeff Iuliano had similar days in that they both pinned one opponent and won another in high scoring matches. Davis especially showed a lot of energy and lost in overtime to the Massabesic wrestler in the consolation semifinals.

Zack Smerlas had a great day pinning his first two opponents and then beating his third opponent 10-2. Finally, Smerlas lost the finals to a wrestler from Greater Lowell.

Although it was a long day, L-S came out very successful. ``To sit in a gym and stay mentally prepared to wrestle after 16 hours, takes a lot of discipline. Davis, Smerlas, and Iuliano showed that by being ready for each match,' said coach Brian Quinn. ``They competed hard and were short changed in several matches due to the matches being shortened to four minutes, instead of their usually six.
``Overall, I was happy with their performances. Now we have to look forward to our New York trip this weekend and DCL rival Wayland next Thursday.'

On Tuesday, L-S was scheduled to travel to Boston Latin and this Saturday, the L-S team will travel to Schenectady, NY for another demanding tournament.