On Monday, January 11, the MTA Wrestling Team faced the Lexington High School for the Deaf in their fifth match of the season. The Lexington High School is for students with hearing impairments, and require slightly altered rules when wrestling: the referee must touch the back of both wrestlers while blowing the whistle in order to stop the action. After weigh-ins, the match began and MTA received two forfeits by Lexington, resulting in an immediate lead. MTA enjoyed 2 wins and 7 forfeits, forfeiting one weight class for a near shutout victory. Although the students at Lexington did have hearing impairments, they were by no means any less challenging of a team than MTA’s other opponents. Nonetheless, when the match closed, they faced a loss to the MTA Wrestling Lions. This victory pushed the Lions’ record to 5-0.
Immediately following their match against the Lexington High School for the Deaf, the MTA Wrestling team faced one of their chief opponents, Long Island Lutheran. LIL took first place in the private school league that the Lions participated in last year, while the Lions took third. MTA had already beaten the previous year’s second place team earlier this season, and this match could mean the difference between placing first or second in the league. With much on the line, the setting was tense for the two teams, both undefeated this season.
Wrestling began at the 106 lb. weight class, which LIL won by pin. LIL also won the 113 lb. weight class by forfeit, but MTA picked up the 120 lb. weight class win by forfeit. Shimmy Mandelbaum ‘16 at 126 lbs. pinned his opponent in thirty seconds, tying the score after the first four of fourteen matches. LIL went on to win the next two matches at 132 and 138 lbs. before captain Naftali Horowitz ‘16 started his 145 lb. match. Naftali dominated most of the match, entering the third period with a 10-4 lead. With roughly thirty seconds left to the match, his opponent scored a take-down and immediately went for the pin. Yet, Nafatali held out and ended the match victorious, with a close score of 10-9. MTA won the 152 lb. and 172 lb. weight classes by forfeit and lost the 160 lb., 182 lb. and 195 lb. weight classes by pin. MTA pulled up, almost tying the score, when Izzy Frasco at 220 lb., won his match with a score of 3-2.
By this time, Long Island Lutheran was only leading by a few points and if MTA’s heavyweight would win his match by at least 6 points, MTA be victorious. However after 6 full minutes of intense high-class wrestling, the Lions lost by a single point; the final score was 4-3.
By Shimmy Mandelbaum
