FINDLAY, OHIO
The Lake Erie College Storm wrestling program finished the 2019-2020 Great Midwest Championship Duals with a final record of 4-1 this weekend, adding two wins against Ohio Valley and Findlay before falling to no. 8 ranked Tiffin in the G-MAC Championship.
The Storm won with a final team score of 45-9 over Ohio Valley, earning eight individual wins in the contest, including wins by forfeit at 125, 141, 149, 165, and 285.
Jacob Potok, wrestling at 165, earned the only fall of the dual against Ohio Valley.
Two wins by decisions were earned by Storm wrestlers. At 174, Paul Scaramuzzino won a 5-2 decision, and at 197 Chris Droege ranked no. 14 overall, won by a 7-0 decision.
Lake Erie then beat the University of Findlay Oilers with a final score of 23-12 aided by three wins by decision, one win by major decision, and back-to-back wins by technical fall.
Blake Glogouski, ranked no. 14, earned an 8-2 win by decision to put his second win of the tournament under his belt wrestling at 133.
Brandon Tenney and James Penfold earned back-to-back wins by technical fall over the Oilers. Tenney, wrestling at 149, won 18-0 while Penfold, wrestling at 165, won 17-2.
John Penfold took down no. 7 ranked Nathan Vandermeer in a 2-1 win by decision.
At 184, Brylan Clouse earned a 12-1 win by major decision.
Chris Droege, ranked no. 14 overall, earned his fourth win of the tournament with a 7-0 decision, and the Storm moved on to the championship dual against tournament favorite, Tiffin.
The Storm lost the championship dual against the no. 8 ranked team overall, the Tiffin University Dragons, with a final score of 21-19. Four of the five individual wins over the Dragons were wins by major decisions. Storm wrestling also earned one win by decision.
The Storm pulled ahead of Tiffin to start with four straight wins, including two back-to-back wins by major decision.
Jacob Johnson earned an 18-10 major decision win to start the dual at 125. Johnson earned four wins overall and dropped one to finish at the 2019-2020 G-MAC Championship Duals. Then, at 133, no. 14 ranked Blake Glogouski earned an 8-0 major decision win.
The Storm won again at 141 with Andrew Lieb's win by decision (7-3), followed by another win at 149. Brandon Tenney won by major decision (14-5).
Tiffin took bouts at weight classes 157, 165, 174, and 184 and the two teams were tied. Storm competition at those weight classes included two nationally ranked wrestlers in Trey Grine (157) and Hayden Bronne (174).
Chris Droege put the Storm in front by one team point with a win by major decision (11-3) at 197, but a Tiffin win at heavyweight gave them the dual.
"We made it interesting.", said head coach Jeff Breese. "I know we were the number-two seed this weekend but if you look at our results throughout the year, I don't know if we were truly the number-two seed.
The performance we had against Findlay was HUGE. It put us in a position for the Tiffin match to mean something. Tiffin is TOUGH. If we're being honest, they had two of their best guys still sitting on the bench because that's how good Tiffin is. They are really tough! I'm really proud of the fight that our guys brought.
We needed one more win, somewhere, anywhere, along the way to have a shot. We originally thought we were going to need six or seven matches against them because they have such good pinning power.
It came down to heavyweights last year against Tiffin. Their heavyweight didn't get to celebrate while ours did. It came down to heavyweights this year and theirs got to celebrate a lot. I want to keep this an actual rivalry where this dual is this intense every year, where this dual is competitive every year, and hopefully this dual means something every year."
The Storm wrestling schedule is anything but cooling down upon arrival back to Painesville this week. "I think our team performance this weekend is building more confidence between our individuals to know they can compete with the best in the country", said Breese. "Wrestling tough as a team in a dual can be contagious and the team can feed off each other."
The Storm will host University of Wisconsin-Parkside on Friday, Jan. 31. UW-Parkside has been in and out of the DII NWCA Coaches Poll all season long and currently received ten votes to be featured in the current poll.
Lake Erie will host no. 21 ranked Gannon in the Osborne Center for the program's second annual Dinner & A Show dual on Feb. 8.
Then, on Feb. 12, the Storm heads down the road to face the no. 5 ranked team, Notre Dame College, before their last two meets before NCAAs.
#RageOn
