JOHNSTOWN, Pennsylvania – The Lake Erie wrestling team competed in the Mountain Cat Tri-Match this weekend at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown. It was a tough showing for the Storm and they dropped both duals on the day. Their dual record now goes to 1-4 on the year with conference competition beginning soon.
#13 Lake Erie - 11
#19 UNC Pembroke - 31
The match began with each side trading decision wins. The Braves took the victory at 125 and the Storm won at 133 with
Anthony Sagaris winning 4-2.
#2
Christian Small gave Lake Erie a 7-3 lead after a 11-0 major decision win over Avery Buonocore but the Braves tied it back up after #9 Jake Piccirilli took down
Egidio DiFazio by 19-6 major decision.
The Storm would drop five of their next six matches, including a forfeit at 285. #6
Jack Haskin earned a 10-0 major decision victory at 165 and the final score fell in favor of the Braves, 31-11.
#13 Lake Erie - 14
#20 Pitt-Johnstown - 28
The Storm's next match against #20 Pitt-Johnstown looked better than their effort against the Braves, with a few comebacks falling just short. At 125
Braden Hahlen went down 6-3 and managed to tie it up with little time remaining and held on to force a sudden victory with #8 Tevon Gray. Unfortunately, Gray would come out on top and the Storm went down 3-0.
At 133 Sagaris was back on the mat. He went down 8-1 early and bounced back to make the deficit just 9-7. After a takedown, he then tied it up at 11-11 with around 40 seconds remaining. His opponent would manage to escape though and Sagaris fell 12-11.
Down 6-0 at this point, #2 Small tied up the game with a pin in the third period against Mason Myers. After a major decision loss at 149, Lake Erie would then go down, 10-6.
Matthew Kaufmann, at 157, held on to win a tough gritty 5-2 decision victory against #8 Cooper Warshel to trim the Mountain Cats lead to just one. At 165, #6 Haskin followed up Kaufmann's upset victory with a 18-3 technical fall victory, giving the Storm a four point advantage.
Unfortunately, the wheels would start to fall off for Lake Erie. At 174, Vincent Scaramuzzino went down but bounced back to take a 5-3 lead towards the end of the first. He would slip out in the second to extend it to 6-3. One point later, followed by a reverse and later a take down, handed the Mountain Cats a late 8-7 decision win and trimmed their deficit to just one with three matches remaining.
At 184 the Storm would suffer a close 4-2 decision loss to lose the lead and at 197 Lake Erie suffered a pin loss to #8 Dakoda Rodgers. After forfeiting their 285 match, the Storm would end with a 28-14 loss.
Looking Ahead
The Storm will next begin conference dual competition on Sunday, January 12th in Owensboro, Kentucky to face the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers and the #16 Ashland Eagles. This will be the Storm's last competition before the Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championships on Saturday, January 25th.
