South comes close to third win of season

The Williamsville South wrestling team came close to its third win of the season but was upset 38-25 by Lake Shore last Wednesday.

Winning by pinfall at 135 was Nick Green. Green took down Jarrod Dziedzic early in the match and controlled it for the entire first period. With only seven seconds left on the clock in the first, Green turned him on his back and recorded South's first big win of the night.

Also winning for South was Mike Lang at 160, who got a much needed escape and takedown in the third period to win 8-5.

Senior captain Mike Walter pinned Steve Chipman with a nice pin in the second to put South within 12 points of the Eagles.

Not wanting to be outdone by Walter, Elliot Frank took the mat against Todd Bentley with an added intensity that everybody fed off of. Winning 5-4 by getting an escape early in the period, then reversing Bentley after a takedown that put Frank down 4-1, showed the senior captain's resiliency and after putting him on his back for a near fall score that gave him two more points, Frank had the lead going into the third and final period.

Bentley didn't give up by pushing Frank to the limit, but Frank's grit got him through the two minutes and the win to put South within 15 points of Lake Shore.

At 103, Luke Falzone beat a tough John Inglut, 3-0, improving his record to 13-5. Anthony Libatore, the other South wrestler from Mill Middle School (Falzone is the other) recorded a win at 112 by beating his opponent, 12-3, in a pretty one-sided match. That brought South within eight points of but with only one match left, the defeat was imminent.

South took the long trip to Pioneer High School last Friday for its next dual meet. Winning at JV was Jake Eckenrode at 130. Eckenrode has wrestled for varsity in previous dual meets but that night coach Sean Leaderstorf decided to see what he could do at the JV level.

"Being a first year wrestler, Jake still has a lot to learn about the sport but with his Krav Maga (a Russian form of fighting) background he has good instincts and pretty good speed on his feet," said Leaderstorf.

Eckenrode won by pinning his opponent Ryan Owens in 1:42 in the first period.

"It was great to see Jake get this win, he has been working hard in practice and really deserved this one," said Leaderstorf.

Other wins were recorded by Walter (forfeit), Falzone and Libatore.

The South JV team traveled to Lancaster High School last Saturday to wrestle in its annual JV tournament. The only South wrestler to place was freshman Spencer Biondo, who took second overall after going into overtime and losing because of a "bad call" from a referee who claims Biondo illegally locked his hands awarding his opponent one point and the victory, said Leaderstorf. Other notables from the tournament were Libatore (2-2), Tariq Zahran, Eckenrode, Zak Zahran, Evan Knoer and Andrew Mohr, who all wrestled well according to coach John Szymendera.

South wrestles at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at Williamsville East followed by the ECIC Tournament on Friday and Saturday at East Aurora High School.

Leaderstorf said the schools in South's division will bring their top wrestlers to see how they fare against each other.

"We should have a good showing at the tournament," said Leaderstorf. "If our guys wrestle hard like they know how and have shown us recently, they should come home with some hardware."