 "Photo: Melissa Rowling")
The rankings didn’t matter to the Warrior wrestling team Feb. 16 when they took down Kutztown University.
Coming into the match, the KU Golden Bears were nationally ranked 18th in the NCAA Division II and 5th in the NCAA Division II East Region, while the Warriors were ranked below them in 7th in the East region.
Regardless of these numbers, the Warriors went into the night with high hopes for their seniors Shane Mallory and Dave Luthy.
Luthy is a two-year starter in the ESU Warriors lineup. Mallory started all four years of his career at ESU and is ending with a winning record of 75-44. Each wrestler was escorted by their mother’s and was honored by their coaches and teammates for their annual senior night.
The match started out with a bang as Junior Eddie Ebewo took down Kutztown’s 197lb Scotty Snyder in only 13 seconds of a sudden victory overtime and getting the match off to an excellent start.
This put the Warriors in lead, but not for long when Kevin Bolinsky of Kutztown stepped on to the mat to tie up the match 3-3. Following Bolinsky was Kutztown’s Chris Sheetz who won at 125ibs. to take the Golden Bears into the lead.
Even though two Warriors had just been defeated, nothing was going to stop ESU’s Andrew Arnold from beating Clayton Youtz 13-4 in their bout at the 133 weight class.
There was a clear turnover when ESU’s Adam Hluschak upset John Paukovits (Ranked No. 6 in the NCAA Division II East Region) at 141lbs. In fact, Hluschack upset Paukovits so much that Paukovits threw his head gear and had a point taken away from his team bringing the score to 10-8 in the Warrior’s favor.
ESU’s Eddie Stephenson took the momentum and excitement from the stands with him on the mat and pinned Brett Martinez in just 1:56.
The Warrior’s momentum was unstoppable at this point and Thad Frick continued to build the Warrior’s score after a major decision of 20-8 against Kutztown’s Anthony Frost.
This brought the Warrior’s to a 12-point lead against the Golden Bears and everyone was hyped as East Stroudsburg’s Jeff Jacobs stepped to the mat with confidence. It only took Jacobs 1:41 to create one of the most exciting victory’s of the night and pinned David Zeek (ranked No. 3 in the NCAA Division II East Region at 165lbs.).
Soon after Jacob’s pinned Zeek, the biggest victory of the night was from Senior Shane Mallory who is ranked Number 6 in the NCAA Division II East Region at 184lbs.
Mallory showed no signs of nervousness as he stepped out onto the mat to go up against Tim Darling who is ranked number 1 in the East Region at 184. It took only three periods for Mallory to beat Darling 8-6. This brought Mallory to his 75th career win as an East Stroudsburg University Warrior.
Not only did the match begin with a bang, but it also ended with one. The Warrior’s triumphed over nationally ranked Kutztown 29-11.
ESU wrestling is finished here in the burg, but will continue this weekend when they travel to Pitt-Johnstown for the NCAA Division II East Regionals.
Be the first to comment on this article!