SPRINGFIELD, MA – The Williams College wrestling team, ranked third in New England, finished the dual match portion of their schedule this afternoon in Springfield taking on WPI, ranked sixth in New England, and Springfield College ranked seventh in the region.
The Ephs were edged by WPI 18-16 in their first match of the day when the Ephs were docked with a stall call in the final bout of the match and an unsportsmanlike penalty point, resulting the WPI win.
Against WPI the Ephs lost two sudden victory matches and two major decision bouts and they competed without three-time All-American Jorge Lopez (157).
Williams opened up a 9-3 lead over WPI after Jake Savoca's win at 165, but then WPI took control of the match winning the next three bouts, which included two major decision victories.
The Ephs attempted to rally behind a technical fall win by Chris Chorzepa at 184 and a decision by Anthony Brooks at 197.
Martin Strenk wrestled up in weight to compete in the heavyweight bout and he was trailing 3-1 in his match when he was called for a stall late in the match. Eph head coach Scott Honecker questioned the stall call and was assessed a misconduct penalty of 1 point.
Chorzepa's win at 184 raised his season record to 34-0.
"Today was a bittersweet day, starting with a heartbreaking loss to WPI followed by a very exciting win against Springfield," said Eph head coach Scott Honecker. "We have to have the same attitude about both matches-- learn as much as possible from them, file the matches away, and continue our focus on the postseason starting in two weeks."
"There were some good takeaways from the WPI loss," continued Honecker. Matt Morris posted his second straight win over their guy who is a returning All-American. Gabe C0rrochano got us a big win at 141. Between Gabe and Brendon Seyfried we went 2-0 at 141 today. We have yet to determine who is getting the call for the NCAA regional between those two, but I'm impressed and feeling confident in either guy going forward. We competed well, but at the end of the dual they had the win. There's some shared disappointment because everyone feels like they could have done a little more in a dual that close, coaches included. After that one I knew our maturity would be measured by how we bounced back against Springfield."
In the nightcap versus the host Springfield Pride Williams won 22-19 to finish with a regular season record of 13-5.
Springfield led the Ephs 17-10 with three bouts remaining, but Williams won all three to claim the victory. Chris Chorzepa at 184 won by forfeit raising his season record to 35-0 and narrowing the Springfield lead to one at 17-16.
Senior Anthony Brooks at 197 gave Williams a 19-17 lead when he won an 8-3 decision over Seve Burgos.
Martin Strenk then sealed the win in the heavyweight bout. Strenk opened the year competing at 184, but of late has been wrestling up. He edged The Pride's Irakli Kakauridze 3-2 giving Williams the 22-19 win.
"Martin Strenk is the story of that dual," stated Honecker/ "If everyone does their job we roll into heavyweight with the dual locked up, that's the way it's been all season. We weren't able to do that this time. So Martin, up from 184, had to go out there and try to win at heavyweight. Marty wrestled a tactically smart match and turned in a heroic takedown to ice the dual. It was a nice emotional high that helped ease the pain of the letdown from earlier in the day."
"Going forward, and really leading up to this and the last few duals, we are focused on making the postseason define our year," noted Honecker. "The dual meet season needs to be a developmental process and that process has come to an end for a short period of time while we try to qualify as many guys to NCAAs as possible. We have two weeks to get as healthy as possible, tighten up our technique, and get ready to go for the most important weekend of the year."
With the win over Springfield Eph head coach Scott Honecker moved into second place all-time in NCAA Division III wrestling wins at Williams with 54. moving past Roger Caron's 53.
Honecker in four years has an overall record of 54-26 (.675).
Mike Whalen the current athletic director at Wesleyan and a former assistant football and head football coach and wrestling coach at Williams is the all-time leader with 83 wins. Whalen finished at 83-86-1.
Next weekend the younger Eph team members will compete in the Futures Tournament hosted by Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I. on Sunday, Feb 21.
On February 27 and 28 the top Eph competitors will head back to Springfield College to compete in the NCAA Northeast Regional in search of securing a berth in the NCAA Championships. The top three finishers at the NCAA Northeast Regional in each weight class advance to the NCAA Championships.
WPI (WP) 18, Williams (WC) 16
125 – Matt Morris (WC) dec. Brian Amato (WP) – 4-3
133 – Patrick Lacroix (WP) dec. Ben Morton (WC) – 3-1 – Sudden Victory
141 – Gabe Corrochano (WC) dec. Peter Nash (WP) -- 6-2
149 – Jake Savoca (WC) dec. Jack Nigro (WP) – 10-5
157 – Grayson DeLuca (WP) maj. dec. Jonathan Berry (WC) – 14-1
165 -- Justin Marsh (WP) dec. Tim Garripoli (WC) – 3-1 -- Sudden Victory
174 – Lucas Muntz (WP) maj. dec. Carl Sangree (WC) – 9-1
184 – Chris Chorzepa (WC) tech. fall Dan Wensley (WP) – 17-2
197 – Anthony Brooks (WC) dec. Michael Curtis (WP) – 3-1
HWY –Austin Shrewsbury (WP) dec. Martin Strenk (WC) – 4-1
In an exhibition match at 174 Eph sophomore Christopher Washington who ever wrestled before coming to Williams defeated Brian Stapleton 7-5.
Williams (W) 22, Springfield (S) 17
125: Matt Morris (W) over Joel Zambrano (S) (Dec 8-4) (3-0)
133: Tyler Keane (S) over Ben Morton (W) (Dec 8-3) (3-3)
141: Gabriel Corrochano (W) over David Colvin (S) (MD 8-0) (7-3)
149: Tyler Keane (S) over Jake Savoca (W) (Fall, 1:46) (7-9)
157: Geovanni Medina (S) over Jonathan Berry (W) (MD, 24-15) (7-13)
165: Timothy Garripoli (W) over Ryan Ward (S) (Dec 2-1 ) (10-13)
174: Connor Sheehan (S) over Carl Sangree (W) (MD 11-2) (10-17)
184: Chris Chorzepa (W) wins by forfeit (16-17)
197: Anthony Brooks (W) over Seve Burgos (S) (Dec 8-3) (19-17)
285: Martin Strenk (W) over Irakli Kakauridze (S) (Dec 3-2) (22-17)
