By Rob Potter
LIBERTY — February 15, 2002 – The Monticello wrestlers got the best of the Liberty grapplers Tuesday night in what was the final OCIAA National Conference meet of the season for both teams.
Visiting Monticello (3-10, 1-5-1 OCIAA) beat Liberty (0-12, 0-6 OCIAA) by a 51-20 margin in the conference finale.
The Indians fared better at the middle weights, as Josh Sprague and Ryan Ringi picked up pinfall wins at 135 lbs. and 140 lbs., respectively. Teammate Andrew Covitt won his 152 lbs. match by decision.
But the Panthers held the advantage at both the lightweight and heavyweight classes. At 130 lbs., Scott Kaplan won by decision and Wayne Vander Meulen (171 lbs.) and Matt Holmes (189 lbs.) recorded pinfall victories.
Both Liberty Coach John Lennon and Monticello Coach Ed Kaufmann recognized that each team was having a down season. Therefore, they juggled their respective lineups in an effort to make the meet as fair and competitive as possible.
“John (Lennon) and I always try to match the kids up so everybody has a decent match,” Kaufmann said. “We try to generate more excitement for wrestling up here (in Sullivan County). I think things were pretty evenly matched tonight.”
Lennon concurred with Kaufmann.
“It was a good meet, everybody wrestled really well,” he said. “Everbody had a good match and everybody had the opportunity to learn something.”
Complete results are as follows:
96 lbs. – Chris Ng (Monticello) won by forfeit; 103 – Jimmy Conway (M) won by forfeit; 112 – Cono Cirone (M) won by forfeit; 119 – Dan Ratner (Liberty) pinned Casey DeGraw (M) at 1:45; 125 – Kyle Fried (M) won by forfeit; 130 – Scott Kaplan (M) defeated Mark LaGattuta by a 9-5 decision; 135 – Josh Sprague (L) pinned David Dunlap (M) at 1:32; 140 – Ryan Ringi (L) defeated Kyle Brasington (M) by a 14-2 decision; 145 – Josh Janove (M) pinned Lauren Michard (L) at 1:45; 152 – Andrew Covitt (L) defeated Eric Shulman (M) by a 8-4 decision; 160 – No Contest; 171 – Wayne Vander Meulen (M) pinned Chris Perez (L) at :41; 189 – Matt Holmes (M) pinned Pete Pekany (L) at 1:24; 215 – Billy Steinberg (M) won by forfeit; 275 – No Contest.