MCHENRY, MD (November 9, 2024) – Sussex County Community College competed in the Defend the Lake Open Saturday afternoon hosted by Garrett College and saw five wrestlers finish top three in their respective brackets, including two bracket winners.
The first bracket winner was sophomore Roman Citro, who won the 125lbs bracket with three wins over George Leischner, Domenic DeMarzo, and Nicholas Anderson. Citro defeated Leischner by fall just over a minute into the match before defeating DeMarzo by technical fall 16-0, with all 16 points coming in the first period. In the championship round, Citro won by decision over Anderson thanks to a takedown and two back points in the first period before recording another takedown to seal the win in the third.
“I felt really good all day, my weight was in check this week and I felt I was wrestling well but still had some areas to improve,” Citro said. “It feels great to win my weight class and become the first two-time champion of this tournament for Sussex.”
The 141lbs bracket saw two Skylanders reach the podium, those being Michael VanderMeulen and Chris Casale. VanderMeulen started his day with a quick win by fall over Maddox Crowe and continued that momentum into his next match, which he once again won by fall over Vincenzo Falsetti. On the other side of the bracket Casale made quick work of Jordan Eisenhauer, winning by fall in just over a minute, and then winning his next match over Ryan Parton by decision 8-5 thanks to an early takedown and four back points in the first period. That meant both teammates would meet in the championship round, but unfortunately Casale decided to forfeit and take second place while VanderMeulen took first.
Two teammates would meet each other again, this time in the 184lbs bracket. Shawn Pawlowski and Mason Mericle both wrestled in the bracket with Pawlowski starting his day with a 23-6 technical fall win over Qadir Hayward before losing to Aiden Poe by fall in just 40 seconds. Mericle’s first match was a close 8-7 decision loss to Braeden Poorbaugh, but he bounced back with back-to-back fall wins over Joseph Burris and Andrew Szwedyk.
That put Mericle against Pawlowski for the next match, but Pawlowski decided to forfeit, sending Mericle to the third place match. Mericle would win that match over Qadir Hayward by decision 11-4, while Pawlowski won the fifth place match over Braeden Poorbaugh by fall late in the third period.
In the 149lbs bracket that featured only three wrestlers, Carlos Delgado earned a second place finish. After falling to Nicholas Ewan by sudden victory 12-9 in a back and forth match, he bounced back with a statement win by fall over Colton Krall that lasted just 48 seconds.
Another notable performance came from Jose Alvarenga Giron who finished fifth in the 174lbs bracket. After losing his first two matches to Cole Stuchal by decision 5-1 and then to Kyle Press-Stephens by fall, he won his third match by decision 12-8 over Christian Hernandez.
Head coach Nick Barzano was encouraged by his top performers and thinks it was a great way to scout some teams the Skylanders will encounter again down the line. “Today we got an early season look at our district teams from southern states and western PA. Kids that were able to place high today set themselves up well for the postseason and will have strong seeding criteria.”
Sussex County will be back on the road again next Saturday Nov. 16 as they travel to Millersville University for the Shorty Hitchcock Open. The event will begin at 9 a.m.
