Springfield Edges Past Ephs in Final Dual Meet

WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – Concluding this season's dual meets, the Williams wrestlers faced off against Springfield College today. After a fierce battle for dominance, the Ephs ultimately fell to Springfield 19-25. "We were really up for this match," said Williams wrestling head coach Honecker, "Springfield's the number one ranked team in the conference, but we felt like we could give them a good run and we came pretty close with a 19-25 finish." The wrestlers can be proud of their improvement on the scoreboard since last year, when they finished 6-42 to Springfield. "I feel like we are moving in the right direction and we are getting significantly better," reported Honecker.

Honecker was pleased with his teams individual performances, saying that he "felt like we wrestled well, especially our seniors Tom Foote and Ces Antista who put up big wins for us at their last home meet." Ces Antista won by major decision at 141 and Tom wrapped up the day with a 5-2 victory over his heavyweight opponent.

Daniel Seidita and Dan Evangelakos started off the meet, falling to their challenger in the 125 and 133 weight classes, respectively.

Jorge Lopez followed Antista's footsteps with 6-1 win at 149.

Next up was Tim Garripoli, who lost 2-6 in an extremely close match.

"Kyle Gaffney got us back on the right foot with a pin in 1:30 and I was really happy to see that," Honecker noted, "it got everybody fired up." Gaffney's victory came in the 157 weight class.

As the day came to a close, John Berry (174) and Anthony Brooks (184) lost to their opponents in close matches, while Dan Kurnick (197) was beaten with a late pin.

"I'm really excited about some of the close matches because in some of these matches in which we weren't victorious, I think we have a strong chance of reversing those decisions should we get that match up at the Northeast Regional tournament," Honecker added enthusiastically.

The Ephs finished up their regular season with a winning record of 12-10. "After a 4-18 finish last year we are really pleased with how far we've come," Honecker reflected, "but that's no excuse for letting up one second, we've got to be focused on getting better every day."

"We've got weeks to get better and we are going to start working on it right on Monday because all we have left are our post-season events and we are really focused on being at our best at the right time"

Results:

Williams vs. Springfield