The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Firelands, Keystone earn victories
A Jan. 13 Quad wrestling dual match among host Wellington, Firelands, Keystone and Oberlin ended with Firelands and Keystone taking two wins each.
In the first match, Keystone took down Oberlin behind several forfeits and Firelands bested Wellington, 42-31.
Firelands got the win against Oberlin in the second match, with Keystone coming away with a 42-36 victory on the other mat.
Oberlin coach Mason Bremke has a fairly young squad without much varsity experience, focusing on getting better through each match.
“We’re learning. Every match you wrestle, every second, every minute, every period, we’re learning,” said Bremke.
“As everybody knows, we have zero varsity experience. We’ve got a bunch of eighth graders and some kids coming off of Covid. It’s about going out there to learn, doing the things we did in practice and grow from it for the postseason.”
For Firelands, they came into the meet with some impressive wrestlers, with Falcons coach Jon Handwerk seeing room to continue moving up.
“We did good. We expect more from them but the competition tonight isn’t as great except for a couple of guys here and there, but as a team, they weren’t up where I expected them to be,” Handwerk said.
One of the best competitors on the mat that didn’t take the floor was Ruben Pina-Lorenzana for the Falcons.
Placing eighth at the Division II state tournament last season at 106 pounds, he’s now moved up to 120. Both matches tonight in his weight class were wins by forfeit.
“Last year, I wasn’t finishing how I wanted. I feel like I could have done a lot better. I felt a lot of regret not placing as high as I wanted. I used that as motivation for this year and I know I can place higher this year than I did last year,” Pina-Lorenzana said.
One of the Morning Journal’s wrestlers to watch going into the 2021-2022 season, he went on to become a 16U Greco-Ramon National All-American and finished in fifth place at Fargo, North Dakota in June 2021.
“It was crazy! It was the biggest event of my life. It’s been the biggest event I’ve been to, an atmosphere I’ve never been around and I’m glad I did. It’s helped me with my confidence and it’s a big confidence booster for me,” Pina-Lorenzana said.