As the winter weather dropped temperatures to the single digits in Painesville, the competition in the Jerome T. Osborne Athletic Center was white-hot as the Storm played host to the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Wrestling Championships. The 2-day event featured all 5 G-MAC wrestling programs in competition for individual dual meets. The Lake Erie Storm would finish 2nd overall with a record of 3-1 on the weekend.
On Friday night, the competition got off to a great start for the Storm with a dominant 53-3 win over a depleted Kentucky Wesleyan squad. A slew of Storm grapplers would win their bouts by pin including Jordan Rodriguez, Corey Gamet, Tyler Swiderski, John Penfold, and James Penfold. Bryan Clouse would also win his bout against the Panthers by major decision.
The next dual was much more closely contested for the Storm as they took on the Findlay Oilers. The dual was neck and neck the whole way, but the Storm would pull away with a 20-15 win. A decisive win by Chris Droege would seal the Lake Erie victory and a strong 2-0 opening to the competition.
On Saturday morning, the Storm would hit the mats again against Tiffin after an initial bye. Well-rested from the initial break, the Storm would defeat the Dragons by a team score of 34-10. The highlight of this match was back-to-back pins by brothers John and James Penfold. James would earn a late third-round pin, and John would follow up with a pin just seconds in the next bout.
This would set up the Storm in a primetime matchup with Ashland in the final round of the event. Both teams would enter the dual 3-0 on the event, and the winner would take home the conference title. Every bout saw the Storm and the Eagles stay neck and neck the whole way. The event would actually end in a tie as Chris Droege wrestled up a weight class and won the final bout to bring it to a score of 21 to 21. Unfortunately for Lake Erie, a tiebreaker of match wins would hand the Eagles the conference title.
However, despite falling just short in the overall competition, the Storm wrestlers would still come away with some hardware for their efforts. Christopher Droege, Nate DeBoe, John Penfold, and Jordan Rodriguez would all earn all-conference 3rd team honors. Tyler Swiderski earned 2nd team honors. Corey Gamet, Jack Haskin, and James Penfold would feature in the all-conference first team. Last but not least, James Penfold would also earn Co-Most Outstanding Wrestler for the event.
The Storm wrestlers get back into action just up the road in Erie, Pennslyvania for a dual meet on Thursday, January 27th against Gannon.
