Montrose wrestlers take tourney win

Despite the below zero temperatures the Montrose grapplers stayed hot and continued their impressive showings in tournament play by capturing the South Williamsport Tournament on Saturday, Jan. 6.
Montrose placed 12 wrestlers and medaled 10 to accumulate 186 points and capture the team title in the nine-team tournament.
Joe Hester continued his December dominance into the new year capturing the 126-pound division, and Makeela Fabrizio also captured gold by winning the 145-pound class.
“I would attribute (our success) to the kid’s hard work, dedication, and consistency,” said Montrose Coach Matt Hawley. “We’ll do a drill for 15 minutes until the whole room understands the importance of the detail.”
Finishing the day with silver medals for Montrose were Chuck Rohan (138), Mikyle Fabrizio (152), Cole Aukema (170), Bryan Ryan, and Marc Avila (195). Andrew Rosevear (113), Justin Kelly (220), and Robert Gregory (285) also earned medals capturing third-place bronze.
“Chuck Rohan is coming off of injuries last year, and didn’t wrestle in Districts,” added Hawley. “But two years ago, he was a District finalist, so he’s someone to watch.”
Other local wrestlers fared well at the event. Mountain View’s Barry Spriggs captured the 120-pound class to lead a quadrant of Eagle Wrestlers. Frank Valentine (145), Logan Sprague (160), and Jeremiah Schwartz finished in third place for the Eagles who finished in eighth place overall with 79.5 points.
Montrose won the team title over Sullivan County who finished a distant second at 154.5, Jim Thorpe (134), South Williamsport (122), and Shamokin (112) rounded out the top five.
Lackawanna League Matches
Lackawanna League Wrestling began Wednesday, January 3 with Blue Ridge and Montrose making the trek to Honesdale to face the highly regarded Hornet wrestling program.
Montrose earned a split defeating Blue Ridge 58-7 and losing to the host 47-21. Hester picked up a pair of wins, defeating Honesdale’s Matt Davis in overtime of the 138-pound match and recording a pin against Blue Ridge’s Alec Martin.
Robert Gregory was also a two-time winner in matches that were wrestled picking up wins at 285-pounds.
Against Honesdale, Aukema and Rohan also recorded pins.
Adam Roe led the way for Blue Ridge collecting the sole win against Montrose with a major decision over Fabrizio and joined Nathan MacCarther and Cole Soden to register pins against Honesdale.
Mountain View traveled to Valley View where they fell to the host Cougars 48-24 and to Lackawanna Trail 33-27 in matches consumed by forfeits and no contests.
Frankie Valentine won his match at 145-pounds defeating Trail’s Trent Ashley 3-2.