Coming back from a number of battles outside of Maryland, the No. 4 St. Paul’s Crusaders returned to MIAA action, Wednesday, and topped Baltimore Lutheran, 54-24.
“The kids that wrestled here wrestled very well,” Crusader coach Jay Braunstein said. “They have been getting beaten up in Pennsylvania, but they came back here and wrestled hard.”
The Crusaders wasted no time in their conference return, winning the first four matches with six-point team results for a 24-0 start and going on to take another five more bouts on the evening.
Resting a number of starting wrestlers, 171-pounder Ryan Gary, Mike Green (189) and Hunter Lee (285) all recorded pins to jump to a large lead with a Matt Green Forfeit at 215, and middleweights Tim Peters (125), Alex Dibos (130), Austin Sauter (135) and Sam Blum came through to provide enough points to take the win.
Dibos and Sauter each earned falls in their respective matches, as peters, Blum and Greg Louzan earned forfeits.
“There is a big difference between the conferences. Coming back from Pennsylvania, the other guys see a world of difference,” Braunstein said. “The kids who are not year-round wrestlers, they see how big a difference there is between a Section-winner in P.A. versus a kid from in-conference.”
Besides the three forfeits Lutheran won with Tyler Waters (103), Tony DiGennaro (112) and Nick Barmoy (152), the team saw a competitive win for Dillon Taylor, working a fall at 145.
St. Paul’s has started the 2010-2011 season by going undefeated in the MIAA B Conference, toping Severn, Friends and Annapolis Area Christian in addition to its most recent win over Lutheran, but fears that his Crusaders may not get the seeding the deserve when it comes to the MIAA Conference Tournament.
“We probably wont get seeded as well as I’d hope to be because we have so many losses,” Braunstein explained. “Eric Friedman, one of the best kids in the state, has six losses. He has wrestled four top-10 kids and lost to all of them by a point.
“And that’s the big thing about going into the MIAAs, you have some really good kids getting ranked one, two and three, and they will be seeing some of my kids right off the bat.”
St. Paul’s will return to wrestling action this weekend in the St. Paul’s Duals, as Lutheran hosts its own wrestling tournament.
St. Paul’s 54, Baltimore Lutheran 24
171: Gary, Ryan (Saint Paul’s) FALL Millburn, T.J.(Baltimore Lutheran) 4:19
189: Green, Mike (Saint Paul’s) FALL Gladstone, Kevin(Baltimore Lutheran) 1:12
215: Green, Matt (Saint Paul’s) For (Baltimore Lutheran) –
285: Lee, Hunter (Saint Paul’s) FALL Kosmicky, Brandon(Baltimore Lutheran) 1:18
103: Waters, Tyler (Baltimore Lutheran) For (Saint Paul’s) –
112: DiGennaro, Tony (Baltimore Lutheran) For (Saint Paul’s) –
125: Peters, Tim (Saint Paul’s) For (Baltimore Lutheran) –
130: Dibos, Alex (Saint Paul’s) FALL Moore, Austin(Baltimore Lutheran) 3:09
135: Sauter, Austin (Saint Paul’s) FALL Haar, Aaron(Baltimore Lutheran) 1:23
140: Blum, Sam (Saint Paul’s) For (Baltimore Lutheran) –
145: Taylor, Dillon (Baltimore Lutheran) FALL White, Gene(Saint Paul’s) 2:48
152: Barmoy, Nick (Baltimore Lutheran) For (Saint Paul’s) –
160: Louzan, Greg (Saint Paul’s) For (Baltimore Lutheran) –
