The Elizabethtown College Blue Jays wrestling team recently hosted a home meet against the University of Scranton Royals. Both teams came into the match 5-3, battling to put themselves in a great spot going into February when the NCAA Regional Championships begin. Before the match, Scranton found themselves under some issues as they came into the match shorthanded, missing 3 of their weight classes being 133, 141, and heavyweight. Etown knew they needed to capitalize on this opportunity to propel themselves in the right direction after getting a great result at the invitation last week.
Starting with the 125 weight class, Etown started strong as senior Braden Schuyler, who is listed as a 133 on the roster, wrestled down a weight class and got the first victory and six points for the Blue Jays, defeating Scranton’s Mark Ortiz by fall. It didn’t take long for Schuyler to get into a winning position by taking down Ortiz early and capitalizing on the poor positioning by the Royal.
For the Blue Jays’ 133 and 141 weight class wrestlers, both earned forfeit victories. Senior Corey Cope and junior Owen Heffner were credited for the victories for the 133 and 141 weight classes respectively, giving Etown an early 18-0 lead.
For the 149 weight class, junior Braden Scott got the nod against Shkeb Nadir, which provided the most entertaining match of the night, with the Blue Jays winning 9-5 by decision in a very close matchup between the two wrestlers.
First-year Peter Ranck III was chosen as the wrestler for Etown in the 157 weight class. Ranck battled hard against Scranton’s Aidan Veirun, but the Blue Jays suffered their first loss of the day, with Veirun defeating Ranck by decision with a score of 10-5.
Sophomore Justice Hockenberry had a close match with the Royals’ Kevin McCarvill in the matchup in the 165 weight class. Hockenberry got the lead and didn’t look back as he was able to add another three points for Etown after winning by decision 11-5, increasing the lead to a score of 24-3 for the Blue Jays.
After the last three matchups that went the distance, the next four were extremely quick as Scranton’s Jacob Burgette defeated Etown’s sophomore Gavin Fehr by fall. Once Scranton picked up their six points and brought the score to 24-9, Etown wrestled some of their best matches of the day starting with junior Ganon Smith, who continued to dominate, winning by fall in the 174 class and increasing his win total to 27 on the year.
In the 197 weight class, senior Will Davis got a technical fall for the Blue Jays, winning 15-0 against Joseph Epright of Scranton. The 285 weight class for Scranton did not have a wrestler, meaning junior Jimmy Yeingst is accredited for the win, giving Etown the win with a final score of 41-9 over the Scranton Royals.
The Blue Jays will wrestle Johns Hopkins at home on Feb. 8 for their final home match for the year before NCAA Regionals begin at Messiah University on Feb. 28 and March 1.
