by Shimmy Mandelbaum (’16)
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 in the season and this match could be the difference between placing first or second in the league. Because of all that was on the line, the setting was tense for both teams which were undefeated this season.
Wrestling began at the 106 lb. weight class, which LIL won by pin. LIL too won the 113 lb. weight class; this time by forfeit, and MTA won the 120 lb. weight class 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) would start 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. However, Nafatali held out and ended the match victorious with an extremely 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. However, 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, then MTA would win. However after 6 full minutes of intense high class wrestling, the match was lost by a single point with a score of 4-3. Although the Lions lost their match, it was an incredibly close one that came down to a matter of points in the last match. After losing their first match, the Lions shook hands with their rivals, packed up the mats and now plan to get back to work and return to their winning ways next Thursday, January 21st, at their next match.
