Fittingly, the contest between two of the top three teams came down to the last few bouts. Jamestown needed to close out the final five weights, but it could only manage four victories as Lancaster’s Joey Freiberg secured the Legends a pin and the eventual 35-31 win at 152 pounds.

“Both teams were undefeated coming into this, we knew it was going to be a battle,” Jamestown head coach Aaron Zwald said. “Lancaster is tough every year no matter what. They’ve got a really solid team, they’ve got a stud with (Michael) Schaefer — their coach’s son — the rest of their team is just solid all around. We knew it would be tough going into it, we’ve got a couple losses we’d like to get back, but I’m proud of the guys and how they’re improving.”

If the records weren’t a sign of what was to come, then the intense first match at 170 pounds truly set the tone.

Jamestown’s Luis Diaz and Lancaster’s Andrij Petryshyn battled back and forth with the score at 10-9 in favor of Petryshyn after two periods. Diaz finished strong as he secured the pin early in the third, setting the table for what would be a very entertaining, back-and-forth dual.

Jamestown’s Zachary Little closes in on a pin of Lancaster’s Joshua Kurtowicz during the 108-pound bout in Wednesday’s ECIC Division 1 wrestling match at Jamestown High School. P-J photo by Christian Storms

“At 170 we bumped up our 160-pounder,” Zwald said about the opening match. “He’s a first-year wrestler, a 10th-grader, never wrestled a day in his life, came out real big for us. They unfortunately bumped their solid guy up another weight class, but we’re super proud of Luis Diaz at 160 going up to 170 and coming away with the pin was a great way to start.”

The Legends (4-0) responded with four wins in a row starting with a pin by Michael Schaefer at 190 pounds, then consecutive decisions by Nathan Myers and Noah Hughes at 215 and 285 pounds, respectively, then a 15-0 technical fall by Isaiah Harry at 101 pounds. That run of matches allowed Lancaster to amass a 17-6 lead.

Jamestown (3-1) got back on track with a pin by Zachary Little at 108 pounds, but it could have really used another pin at 116 pounds.

Following Little, Jamestown’s Aaden Howard found himself in an 11-0 hole in the third period to Lancaster’s Wyatt Griffith. However, Howard did not give up and scored nine consecutive points to trail 11-9, but the rally was snuffed out by a late pin.

“We’re really proud of Aaden Howard at 116,” Zwald stated. “He weighs in at 108, but we bump him up. So he was wrestling a tough kid up there and he had him on his back and he just got reversed. It didn’t go all the way on that one, but we’re always proud of Aaden Howard and how hard he’s improving and working in practice.”

The Red & Green’s Luis Diaz works on top of Lancaster’s Andrij Petryshyn during the 170-pound bout. P-J photo by Christian Storms

That match was a microcosm of the entire dual, Lancaster building a large lead then Jamestown having to battle back, but a pin being the final nail in the coffin.

With another Lancaster pin at 124 pounds, the 12-point swing made it so the Red & Green needed to be nearly flawless down the stretch trailing 29-12.

On Jamestown’s Senior Night, it was only fitting that Connor Bush kicked off the Red & Green rally with a dominant major decision at 131 pounds.

“Tonight was Senior Night and we’ve got a really great group of seniors,” Zwald said. “We’re going to miss these guys a lot. We’ve got Carsen Bane, who couldn’t wrestle this year; he blew his knee out during football season as our star running back. We really could have used him tonight, but we’re really proud of all our seniors and we’re going to miss them a lot.”

Bush dominated the whole match, but Lancaster’s Brandon Toczek would not give in to the pin and Jamestown settled for a 12-0 major decision.

“We ended up bumping up a lot of guys,” Zwald added. “Our 124-pounder went to 131, our 131 bumped to 138, so everybody bumped up. We were hoping to get a pin on that one at 131, he fought hard. He’s got a really good crossface cradle that he just couldn’t quite get for the pin on that one. They did a real great job defensively fighting off that crossface cradle from Connor Bush.”

Tyler Zwald then secured a second period pin for the Red & Green at 138 pounds and Aidan Senear reached an 8-2 decision at 145 pounds to pull Jamestown within striking distance, trailing 29-25.

It all came down to the matchup at 152 pounds and Freiberg managed a 6-2 lead after two periods for the Legends. Jamestown needed a big rally from Dembik in the final period, but Freiberg would not relent as he secured a pin and put the match out of reach at 35-25.

Freiberg’s victory was key as Cole Bloomquist had little trouble securing the pin at 160 pounds, but it was too late as the Red & Green suffered their first league loss at the hands of the Legends.

101: Isaiah Harry (L) tf. Zach Thompson, 15-0

108: Zachary Little (J) p. Joshua Kurtowicz

116: Wyatt Griffith (L) p. Aaden Howard

124: Ricky Andres (L) p. Brenden Farnsworth

131: Connor Bush (J) md. Brandon Toczek, 12-0

138: Tyler Zwald (J) p. Chris Gill

145: Aidan Senear (J) d. Cam Oddo, 8-2

152: Joey Freiberg (L) p. Jason Dembik

160: Cole Bloomquist (J) p. Dylan Pierce

170: Luis Diaz (J) p. Andrij Petryshyn

190: Michael Schaefer (L) p. Keith Miller

215: Nathan Myers (L) d. Julian Tonkin, 7-3

285: Noah Hughes (L) d. Justin Saunders, 7-1