Despite winning in six-of-ten weight classes, the Lakeland wrestling team fell 23-21 to Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) Feb. 4 in a Northern Wrestling Association dual meet at the Todd Wehr Center Fieldhouse. The dual victory was MSOE’s first over the Muskies in five years.
“The difference was a couple guys getting pinned,” wrestling coach Mike DeRoehn said. “I can’t honestly say I’m not disappointed in a few of the guys. I don’t think that they fought as hard as they could have while some other guys were really giving it their all. You need to have all ten guys fighting. If they fight for seven minutes, win or lose you can’t fail. We didn’t have that tonight.”
At 149, freshman Jacob Bugajski picked up the team’s only pin of the evening in 1:38 over Josh Wengerter and junior Rob Forgette scored an 18-2 technical fall over Kyle Perea at 197.
Senior 157-pounder Isaac Roberson breezed past MSOE’s David Swanson for a 17-8 major decision heading into the back half of the night’s matchups.
Tom Phalin, Miguel Luis, and Brandon Garcia each won by decision at 285, 174, and 165, respectively.
DeRoehn highlighted efforts like the one given by Bugajski in his pin as “huge” and applauded his wrestlers who “gave it their all.”
“I think the five guys that won did their job for sure. But then you also had guys like Grant Franzen who just fought. That’s victory right there, where he just continued to fight for ten minutes. As long as guys fight, we’re going to be proud of them.
“This is some motivation for the conference tournament. We lost this dual meet but we still have the conference championship tournament in two weeks. MSOE does have a really nice team this year. They’ve knocked off UW-Oshkosh who’s nationally ranked; they’ve knocked off UW-Platteville and UW-Eau Claire…so they’ve got a nice program, and they’ve got some really good coaches, and they’re doing a great job there, but it’s two weeks for us to try to turn things around in our favor. It was two points. We can turn that thing around.”
Jan. 28 and29, Roberson and sophomore 165-pounder Ryan Renon took fourth and seventh place, respectively, at the highly-competitive Pete Wilson Invitational in Wheaton, Ill.
Roberson wrestled his way into the semi-finals only to lose 10-0 to eventual champion Elias Larson of Trine.
Renon earned three victories, including two pins, before an 8-4 loss to Augustana’s Jordan Graham sent him to the seventh place match, which Renon won with a 7-5 decision over Wabash’s Jake Moore.
The team will travel to UW-Lacrosse for a dual meet scheduled to start at 6 p.m.