WILLIAMSTOWN, MA – On Senior Night and in their home finale in Lasell Gym the Williams College wrestling team (7-10) ranked 8th in New England tangled with 9th-ranked Castleton University (11-14) and claimed a 23-19 victory.
The match started at 149 and the Ephs took a 6-0 lead when Alex Pankhurst was awarded a forfeit win. Gabe Corrochano followed with a major decision over Castleton's James Kilgo at 157 to boost the Eph lead to 10-0.
Castleton's Jared Costa got the Spartans on the scoreboard with a 9-0 major decision win over Luke Anselmi at 165 to narrow the score to 10-4 in favor of the Ephs. Next Castleton's Zach Allen turned a 3-0 deficit into a third period pin at 174 to tie the match at 10-10.
Chris Chorzepa gave the Ephs the lead back at 14-10 with a major decision win over Mitchell LaFlamm at 184. The Eph lead went back up to 10 when Martin Strenk pinned Joe Galusha in 3:37 at 197 and Williams was now on top 20-10.
At heavyweight Castleton's Nick Scott earned three points with a win by decision, 2-0, over Sebastian Dziadkiewicz and the Spartans trailed 20-13. The Spartans got the Eph lead down to four when Tyreek Staton won 7-5 over the Ephs' Matt Morris at 125 to make the score 20-16 in favor of the Ephs.
Ben Morton at 133 sealed the match for the Ephs when he overcame a 3-0 deficit in the third period with an impressive reversal and then fashioned a quick takedown and won 7-3 over Nick Camacho to put the Ephs up 23-16.
In the final bout of the night at 149 Castleton's Zak Hale posted a 4-1 decision over Brendon Seyfried to make the final score in the match 23-19 in favor of Williams.
"The best thing about tonight was all three seniors in the lineup were able to get a win in their last home match representing the College," said Eph head coach Scott Honecker.
"All the guys really stepped it up and did everything they needed to do to make sure the seniors got out with a win."
"Chris Chorzepa (184), Gabe Corrochano (141), C.J. Levin (197), Martin Strenk (197) and Austin Wruble (141) will be dearly missed by the program and I'm glad they were able to get a good send off tonight," added Honecker. "Obviously this lineup isn't built for dual matches, but we had some great head to heads that will tune us up for tournament time in two weeks."
"Brendon [Seyfried] and Matt [Morris] both lost close matches that will be great learning experiences for them as we refine our skills heading into the post season," stated Honecker. "I'm excited that we have a good rivalry developing with the new program at Castleton and I look forward to keeping the rivalry strong as I don't see any signs that they will be doing anything but improving in the near future."
Williams (W) 23 Castleton (CU) 19
149: Alex Pankhurst (W) won by forfeit -- W 6-0
157: Gabe Corrochano (W) won by major decision over James Kilgo (CU) – 8-0 –W –10-0
165: Jared Costa (CU) won by major decision over Luke Anselmi – 9-0 – W 10-4
174: Zach Allen (CU) pinned Carl Sangree (W) in 5:37 – T 10-10
184: Chris Chorzepa (W) won by major decision over Mitchell LaFlamm (CU) – 11-2 – W 14-10
197: Martin Strenk (W) pinned Joe Galusha (CU) in 3:32 – W – 20-10.
285: Nick Scott (CU) won by decision over Sebastian Dziadkiewicz (W) – 2-0 – W 20-13
125: Tyreek Staton (CU) won by decision over Matt Morris (W) – 7-5 – W 20-16
133: Ben Morton (W) won by decision over Nick Camacho (CU) – 7-3 – W 23-16
141: Zak Hale (CU) won by decision over Brendon Seyfried (W) – 4-1 – W 23-19
Tonight was the last home event for Eph seniors Chris Chorzepa (184), Gabe Corrochano (141), C.J. Levin (197), Martin Strenk (197) and Austin Wruble (141).
The next competition for the Ephs will be on Feb. 19 at the NEWA Futures event being held at Johnson and Wales University in Providence, R.I. The Futures event features the wrestlers who will not be competing at the NCAA Northeast Regionals hosted by Roger Williams University in Bristol, R.I Feb. 25 and 26.
