1/20/23
 
SCRANTON, Pa. – For the first time in the 2023 spring semester, the Lackawanna College Falcons wrestling team hits the mats, when they travel to Mont Alto, PA for a quad match with the three other schools on Saturday, January 21^st.
 
The Falcons will face off with the hosts (PSU Mont Alto), as well as Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and Garrett College on Saturday morning. Matches are expected to get under way at 11:00am from PSU Mont Alto. There will be a video livestream available via the PSU Mont Alto athletics website, HERE.
 
About The Falcons
Lackawanna College has not wrestled since December 3^rd, when the Falcons competed up at the Niagara County CC Thunderwolves Open in Sanborn, NY. While there, the Falcons placed a champion when Evan Raposo won the 149-lb class, while five other Falcons finished second in the event, including Shannon Core, who earned a fall against last year's district champion Connor Saladin from Garrett College in 6:28 to finish second in the heavyweight class.
 
The Falcons are led by Kordell Waiters (Macungie, PA), Evan Raposo (East Stroudsburg, PA) and Dylan Hogan (Bushkill, PA), who each have winning records so far this season. Waiters is 4-1 at 141-lbs this year, with three wins by fall this year. Waiters was the 141-lb champion at the Keystone Open earlier this season, and went 3-1 at the Thunderwolves Open in December, earning second place at 141.
 
Raposo is 4-1 overall this year, winning a pair of matches by fall, and another pair by decision. Raposo went 2-0 at the Keystone Open to earn the 149-lb title, and then won another pair of matches at the Thunderwolves Open to win the 149-lb title again.
 
Hogan has the most wins on the team, with five on the year, four of which have come by fall, and the other by a technical decision. Hogan was 2-0 at the Keystone Open to win the 165-lb championship, and then was 3-1 at the Thunderwolves Open in December, finishing second at 165.
 
Shannon Core (Scranton, PA) is 3-3 on the year, picking up three wins by fall this year. Core was 3-1 at the Thunderwolves Open in December, with his big win over Saladin coming in his last match, to give him second place.
 
Simeon Hunte (Burlington Twp, NJ) is 3-4 on the season, competing at 184 this year. Hunte lost his first two matches of the day at the Thunderwolves Open, but recovered with a pair of wins to end up second at 184-lbs on the day.
 
The Falcons are coached by Frank Barbrie, now in his second season with the Falcons. Barbrie, who was a three-time District 2 PIAA champion at Pittston Area here in Northeast PA, has a great deal of wrestling and coaching experience. His stops include locally with Lake Lehman and Danville Area, as well as the Zachary School in Louisiana, prior to his appointment at Lackawanna College. Barbrie was also responsible for rejuvenating the dormant wrestling program at Luzerne County CC in the early 2000's, turning the program around and producing several national qualifiers. Barbrie wrestled at the junior college level for national champion Garden City CC, starting for the Broncbusters for two years, where he was named to the 1996 NJCAA All-American team. Barbrie went on to a full scholarship at Bloomsburg, where he graduated with both a communications, and later, an education degree, before earning his Master's in education from Wilkes University.
 
About PSU Mont Alto
The Nittany Lions from PSU Mont Alto have a handful of wrestlers competing at this point in the season. The Nittany Lions are 0-3 overall in duals, and have also competed in a pair of opens.
 
Luke Lardarello competes at 174-lbs, and leads the squad with five wins this year, all coming on falls. Lardarello went 2-0 and was the champion at 174 at the Keystone Open, where he defeated Walter Jones, III from Lackawanna College by fall at 3:20. He also represents the only points that Mont Alto have secured in duals, winning the bout at 174 in a loss to Penn College.
 
Nick Kostyak is 5-5 on the season, with four wins coming via fall. Kostyak went 4-2 at the Alvernia Invite to start the season, earning a fourth place finish at 184. He was 1-1 at the Keystone Open, with his lone win a fall against Lackawanna College's Simeon Hunte at 4:44.
 
Davon Williams is the interim head coach at PSU Mont Alto. Williams graduated from Mont Alto in 2021 with an Information and Science Techology Degree. He was the team's assistant coach last season, and was a two-year participant with the program before that. Williams is a south-central PA native, a graduate of Chambersburg Area HS.
 
About Thaddeus Stevens
The Bulldogs have a full complement of wrestlers on their roster. This will be their first wrestling event in the new year, as they were last in action back on December 17^th against Middlesex College, where they were unsuccessful.
 
Thaddeus Stevens is coached by Steve Mousetis.
 
Garrett College
The Lakers, defending team champions from last year's Gulf Atlantic District Championships, come into the contest after falling in their first duals of the year, losing to Niagara 33-12. They also wrestled against Bergen CC.
 
Garrett also has a full complement of wrestlers on its roster this season.
 
The Lakers are coached by John Chambers, now entering his fifth season with Garrett College. Chambers got six wrestlers qualified for the national tournament and earned the Eastern District II championship for Garrett in his first season at the helm. He followed that up the next year with five more qualifiers for the NJCAA tournament. Last year, he guided the Lakers to the Gulf Atlantic District Championship, with a handful more qualifiers moving on to the NJCAA National Tournament in Iowa.
  
The Match-Up
The Falcons will face off with the hosts (PSU Mont Alto), as well as Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology and Garrett College on Saturday morning, January 21^st. Matches are expected to get under way at 11:00am from PSU Mont Alto. There will be a video livestream available via the PSU Mont Alto athletics website, HERE.
 
The next scheduled match for the Falcons is another quad match, at home, against Bergen CC, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Keystone College. That quad match is set for an 11:00am ET start inside the Lackawanna College Student Union gymnasium.