The Porters battled through an exhausting two weeks of wrestling earlier this week. In that time span, the team went out of state to finish 21st as a team, placing only two wrestlers at the toughest in-season tournament in the nation. Lockport then had four straight days of dual meets, ending the span with a record of 3-3.
IRONMAN
All the way back on December 8th and 9th, Lockport traveled to the Ironman Tournament at Walsh-Jesuit High School in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. Considered to be the toughest high school tournament in the nation, it held up to its reputation. Lockport placed only two wrestlers in the tournament - Matt Ramos finished in 7th place at 113, while Anthony Molton took home 5th place at 120.
Each placer had a couple notable wins under their belt. Ramos, who came into the tournament ranked 15th in the country by FloWrestling at the time, took out Dylan Shawver of Elyria (OH) in the Round of 12 (or, as we love to call it, “The Blood Round”). At the time, Shawver was ranked 17th by Flo, but at 120 pounds. Ramos also notched a win by fall over Beau Bayless of Reynolds (PA), who has been ranked 20th by Flo at one point this season. It’s also worth noting that one of Ramos’s losses came to Lucas Byrd of La Salle (OH), who has been ranked between 5th and 12th nationally this season, and was on the Cadet World Team this past September.
Not to be outdone, Anthony Molton picked up a pair of quality wins during his tournament. Molton also knocked off Brendon Fenton of Elyria (OH), ranked 15th at the time by Flo, by a 10-1 major decision in the Blood Round. Molton’s 9-7 victory in his 5th place match came over Justin Pacheco of Pomona (CO), who is ranked 16th by FloWrestling in their most recent set of rankings (Dec. 19).
There was a much more detailed write-up just about the Ironman, but some website difficulties occurred, and that post seems to have disappeared forever, so that’s all the blurb you’ll get for this one. If you’d like to check it out for yourself, here is a link to the Ironman Tournament on TrackWrestling, where you can view final team scores, individual results, and brackets. http://www.trackwrestling.com/tw/predefinedtournaments/VerifyPassword.jsp?tournamentId=270646009
WEEKDAY DUALS
On Wednesday, December 13, Lockport traveled out to Homewood-Flossmoor to take on the Vikings, where the Porters came away with a 58-13 win on the day. There were no “matches to watch out for,” so to speak, as HF had no ranked wrestlers. Lockport kept HF to 4 wins, while coming away with 7 of their own, as well as three wins by forfeit. Matt Ramos (113) won by a technical fall, while Anthony Molton (120), Baylor Fernandes (152), Zach Reese (160), and Parker Pavlacka-Piel (195) each picked up a win by fall. Anthony Crapia (132) picked up a decision victory, as did Jake Rosin (220). Earning forfeit wins were Ryan Oster (106), Jake Lukasczyk (126),and Malik Daghash (170).
Thursday, Lockport hosted an always tough Lincoln-Way West squad. The dual was a back-and-forth battle, as one may expect from the #4 (Lockport) and #6 teams in the state. But when the dust all settled, it was Lincoln-Way West coming out with a win over the defending state champion Porters, by a final score of 34-30. Jeff De Graw wrote up a great article covering the dual meet here (http://www.theherald-news.com/2017/12/15/wrestling-skentzos-lincoln-way-west-slip-past-lockport/akrqugx/), so do yourself a favor and read that to get a detailed account of the dual. No reason to write it up twice!
Friday, the Porters traveled to Frankfort to square off against Lincoln-Way East. Taking nothing away from the host Griffins, who clearly came ready to wrestle, Lockport struggled from the get-go, perhaps still focused on their disappointingly close loss from the night before. In the end, it would come to cost them, as Lockport dropped the dual to LWE by just one point, 29-28. The dual started at 132, where Garrett Golob lost a close 2-0 decision to LWE’s Patrick Zofkie. Matt Mahalik helped the Poters bounce back at 138, earning a takedown in the final thirty seconds of a tied match to pick up a 7-5 win and even up the team score. But at 145, LWE’s Anthony Eattinger scored a major decision victory over Chris McMurtry to put LWE back in the lead, before Baylor Fernandes again evened the score with a major decision of his own for Lockport at 152. At 160, Zach Reese held on for a 4-3 win to give Lockport a 10-7 lead - the only one they would have during the dual. Lockport surrendered a major decision at 170 and at 182, a last second (literally) takedown for LWE gave them a 5-4 win. Heading into 195, perhaps the premier match of the dual, Lockport was down 14-10. At 195, Yousif Salah was taking on LWE’s Nick Mihajlovich, and had fallen behind, but was mounting a solid comeback, notching a few takedowns at will to close the gap, when, early in the third period and trailing by two, Salah went for a big move and couldn’t quite land it - instead landing on his back and Mihajlovich scoring the fall. LWE continued by picking up a fall at 220 and a 1-0 decision at 285, leading 29-10. Lockport picked up a decision at 106 by Mike Kaminski, and pinfalls by Matt Ramos and Anthony Molton at 113 and 120. Heading into the final bout, Lockport trailed 29-25, and needed a tech or a pin for the team win. Jake D’Angelo did all he could to get that fall, and was less than a second away from getting it, with a pin call at the end of the first period being waved off as time had run out. Unable to get the fall, D’Angelo got the win, but the Porters lost, 29-28.
WEEKEND DUALS
On Saturday 4 of the top 10 3A teams in the state met to wrestle in Huntley. #3 Mt. Carmel #5 Lockport, #8 Huntley and #9 Marmion.
Lockport finished 2-1 on the day with scores of:
Lockport 36-23 Marmion Academy
Lockport 26-37 Mt. Carmel
Lockport 41-27 Huntley
Going 3-0 on the day were Matt Ramos, Anthony Molton and Baylor Fernandes.
Notching wins over ranked opponents:
Mike Kaminski 7-2 over #3 Diego Sotelo
Mike Kaminski tech fall over HM Jimmy Pellegrino
Matt Ramos 3-1 over #6 Sam Spencer
Matt Ramos tech fall over #10 Noah Mis
Matt Ramos 6-4 over #7 Michael Jaffe
Anthony Molton 15-9 over #4 Rehan Uribe
Box Scores
LWW
LWE
Marmion
Mt. Carmel
Huntley