By Mike Musary, Special to The Review
The varsity wrestlers finished the week with a 4-3 record.
On Jan. 20, Dragons traveled to Holly for a quad meet against Saginaw Heritage and Fenton. In the first dual, Lake Orion beat Saginaw Heritage, 50-27 and then went on to beat Fenton, 47-23. The team won nine of 13 matches in both duals.
On Jan. 23, Lake Orion traveled to Hartland to participate in a ten-team invitational. Dragons went 2-3 on the day and finished in sixth place, squashing Waterford Mott, 57-6 and beating Bay City Western, 38-22. Dragons lost to Romeo, 38-28 and fell to two ranked schools: Hartland and Holly.
A.J. Fligger (135) was named outstanding wrestler for the tournament, after winning all five of his matches including an exciting 6-4 double-overtime victory over Hartland’s number one ranked wrestler, Jeff Lopez. It was the second week in a row that Fligger knocked off a number one ranked wrestler.
Head Coach Cory Kuzinski said, ‘After taking last weekend off, it was nice to get back to winning on Wednesday. The varsity managed a couple of wins by convincing margins. Although the team scores from Saturday might not indicate it, they are starting to be as aggressive as I would like them to be. Our top wrestlers really seem to be turning a corner.?
On the week, Fligger, Adam Gros (171) and Josh Hofmann (189) all went 7-0. Matt Musary (125) and Willie Stewart (215) were both 5-2. Dom Arnold (145) went 4-1 on the week. Fellow freshmen, Anton Letica (112), Juan Leon (119) and Ethan Gros (140) all had three victories during the week. Dan Ney (152), Devon Meadows (160) and Joey Kohler (285) had two wins each and both Dan Deachin (145) and Deven Ellis had one win each. Durham Basso (152) and Mitch Ladd (160) both had two varsity matches during the week and were very competitive.
Kuzinski said his younger competitors are stepping up.
‘I am proud of the B team’s continued success as they went 3-2 against varsity competition at the Marysville Duals. The JV team also won two duals at the Southgate JV Duals, with five voids in our lineup?.
Lake Orion is now 16 ? 11 on the year, and will host a quad meet on Wednesday, Jan. 27 against Rochester Adams and Hazel Park. That evening, the team will also honor its seven seniors ? Musary, Fligger, Meadows, Hofmann, Stewart, Alex Antosh (189), and Melissa Vernon (130), during Senior Night.