Wrestling edges evanston in tension-filled meet

By Baitul Javid &
Julissa Hernandez

The day before Thanksgiving break, Lane’s Wrestling Team had a lot to be thankful for when they won their final three matches of the day to pull out a 36-35 victory against Evanston.

The meet actually ended in a tie, but Lane was awarded an extra point for sportsmanship – the criteria that serves as the first tie-breaker.

“Our young lower weights came up huge for us at the end of the dual,” Coach Lininger said.

As the match was coming to an end, Lane needed two pins (worth six team points each) and a technical fall (five team points) to win the duel. It came down to Johnny McCarthy, Mitch Wilson, and Nick Jankowski to make this possible. Both McCarthy and Wilson pinned their opponents and Jankowski won with a technical fall, which is awarded when a wrestler outscoring his opponent by 15 points or more.

“That was the most exciting [meet] so far out of this season,” said Ryan Pozniak, varsity wrestler, Div. 253. “The fact that the win came down to the last three wrestlers made it even better.”

“Everyone was cheering so loud, we couldn’t even hear the referee,” said Armin Maksumic, junior varsity wrestler, Div. 035.

The crowd had been rowdy for most of the day. One wrestler reported that the intensity between the teams was high because Evanston’s coach used to coach at Lane.

According to varsity manager Ange Angarita, Div. 036, two wrestlers in the Evanston crowd got into a fight with each other, which caused such a distraction that the match going on had to be halted until order was restored. This incident accounted for the sportsmanship point awarded to Lane.

The wrestling coaches were reportedly unhappy that Lane did not win the match more convincingly. Expectations are higher this year for the wrestlers as they hope to win the City Championship, do well in Regionals, and qualify a respectable number their wrestlers for state.

“The state-ranked wrestlers to watch out for are Nick Jankowski, Max Schneider, and Matt Finnegan,” said Coach Lininger. “There are also returning varsity wrestlers, Ryan Pozniak, Hiathem Hamden, Chase Wilson, Jacob Putnam, Pawel Piotrowkz, and Nader Ihmoud.”

Every day after school the team holds intense practices often lasting over two hours.

“Practices are tough; they [wrestlers] hear a lot of yelling. You need discipline to be in this,” said Coach Colon, “but I think we have the best sport’s program in the school.”