On November 15, Behrend hosted its first wrestling meet in almost four decades as the Behrend Lions took on the Thiel Tomcats. The Lions suffered a narrow 23-21 loss to the Tomcats, but still delivered a strong performance and provided their fans some hope for the program’s future. The meet took place in Erie Hall right after the men’s basketball home opener, and what a match it was.

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Thiel got out to a quick 13-point lead in the meet after three consecutive victories by Cory Bable, Matthew O’Connor and Justin Walter, the second of which came by forfeit, thus awarding Thiel six points. Jacob Ognibene defeated Vincent Mion by ten in the fourth match to get the Lions started. Behrend would go on to win four out of the next six matches to finish out the meet, but were unfortunately unable to overcome the early deficit. Thiel did gain another pinfall out of Jason Miller following Ognibene match, which was arguably the deciding fall of the meet and put Thiel up by 15 with five matches to go. Jacob Parsons was able to gather another pinfall for Behrend before Jacob Paulson and Jacob Lenhardt picked up consecutive wins to end the meet. Paulson scored a technical pinfall, leaving Lenhardt needing a pinfall to win the meet. Lenhardt won in a 5-0 decision, bringing Behrend two points short of tying and three points short of winning their first meet of the season.

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Behrend was able to obtain their first dual meet victory of the season at the John Carroll duals last Sunday. Behrend gained the victory over Lourdes after two landslide losses against Otterbein and John Carroll. After the meet against Lourdes, Behrend against lost in appalling fashion to the Lycoming Warriors.

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Focusing on the positives, Behrend was able to pull out its first dual meet win since the revamp of the program this year. The Lions gained a slim seven-point victory, by a score of 27-20, against the Lourdes Gray Wolves. After three losses to open the meet, it seemed as if the Lions would suffer another miserable defeat at the hands of their opponent, but it was not to be so. Behrend wrestlers won six out of the last seven matches to capture the meet victory. Starting again with a Jacob Ognibene pinfall, his only win on the day, the Lions gained three falls and three decisions on the day en route to the win. Paulson, who went undefeated in his four matches on the day, registered a pin alongside Parsons, who got his pin under two minutes into his match. Lenhardt, Sam Svetz and Donnie Kerr added decision wins for the Lions. Lenhardt again had the decisive match, but this time came through with what his team needed and won the decision by two points.

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Other highlights of the day for individual wrestlers include Lenhardt gaining his first pin of the year against John Carroll’s Bryce Carmichael, Paulson obtaining three total falls on the day and Kerr moving up two weight classes against Lourdes to set Behrend up for the meet win.