Wrestling registers fourth straight loss

The Edinboro Fighting Scots wrestling team fell to Lock Haven on Feb. 6, 25-13. 

The Scots were attempting to break a streak of three consecutive dual meet losses, while Mid-American Conference (MAC) opponent Lock Haven came in with a 6-5 record. 

The bout started off with a heavyweight match between EU’s Jon Spaulding and Lock Haven’s Trey Hartsock. Spaulding, a junior, improved his record to 22-7 after a dominating victory. He notched three takedowns in the match on his way to a 9-3 advantage, putting the Scots up 3-0. 

Lock Haven would then pull out in front after winning three consecutive matches on the backs of their nationally ranked guys. Luke Werner, ranked No. 8 nationally by InterMat, was impressive in a win over Lucas Rodriguez. 

Meanwhile, Edinboro’s Tye Varndell was tasked with taking on No. 18 DJ Fehlman. Varndell put up a great effort, but Fehlman proved to be too much for the freshman, winning in a 7-2 decision. 

“Tye is learning his way; he hasn’t had an easy match at all this year,” said Head Coach Matt Hill. “He is going through the meat grinder as far as his competition goes.”

Richie Gomez also struggled against the third member of Lock Haven’s nationally ranked trio, losing to No. 20 Kyle Shoop on a technical fall. At this point, Edinboro had fallen behind 13-3. 

The Scots would begin to battle back as redshirt senior Tyler Vath would grab a tough decision victory, winning 6-1 over Lock Haven’s Brock Port. He pulled off takedowns in the second and third periods. ‘Boro was now back in striking range, 13-6.

Lock Haven would push the match out of reach after another three matches went in their direction. Alex Klucker beat out Peter Pappas, and Lock Haven’s Austin Bell put on a great performance in a 6-0 win over Derek Ciavarro.

This pushed the dial too far in Lock Haven’s direction as they led, 25-5. 

Edinboro would finish out the night strong, however, winning two matches at 184 and 197 pounds. 

Redshirt freshman Cody Mulligan would notch his 15th win on the season, with a technical fall victory over Ray Bernot, winning 18-1. 

The final match of the night had redshirt senior Dylan Reynolds taking an 8-4 decision victory over Parker McClellan. With this win, Reynolds improved his record to 16-9 on the season.

“We wrestled pretty solid from 149 pounds all the way up to heavyweight,” said Hill. “We just had a couple guys that had some bonehead moves.” 

“Those things all add up, and to beat a decent team you have to have your best guys out there and [you] need a few upsets,” he said.

With this loss ‘Boro fell to a 9-8 record on the year and a 3-5 record within the MAC conference.

 They will face University of Michigan later in the month, a match Hill is looking forward to.

“It’s just opportunity,” he said. “You get to wrestle some of the better guys in the country. Jon Spaulding will get to wrestle the No. 2 guy in the country.”

“We always talk about wrestling the man not the singlet,” said Hill. “Just because he wrestles for Michigan doesn’t mean we can’t beat them.”  

RELATED ARTICLES