11/3/24
 
EAST STROUDSBURG, Pa. – Lackawanna College sent three wrestlers to compete at the 57^th ESU Open at East Stroudsburg on Sunday morning inside the Koehler Fieldhouse.
 
Competing at 149 was Matt Gashi-Brito, who won his first-round match against his opponent from Lincoln Memorial with a fall at the 1:54 mark in the first period. Gashi-Brito advanced to the next round, where he faced Matthew Dimen from nearby Wyoming Seminary. The high-scoring match was entertaining, with Gashi-Brito nursing narrow leads through the first two periods. In the third, leading 13-10, Gashi-Brito tried his best to run out the clock, but Dimen scored a reversal, then three straight stalling warnings awarded him four more points. As time ran out, the riding time gave Dimen an extra point for the 17-13 win, sending Gashi-Brito to the consy bracket. Once there, his opponent from the host school, ESU, beat him with a fall at the 1:30 mark of the first round.
 
At 157 was first-year wrestler John Almonte. Almonte squared off with a DI opponent from Drexel, Jayden Iznaga, in his first-round match-up. Iznaga wasted no time, scoring a takedown just 12 seconds in, and turning that into a fall at the 14 second mark to get the victory. Almonte, in the consy bracket, took on Centenary's Collin Neal, who similarly scored a takedown just past the ten second mark, and turned it into a fall for the win at 16 seconds to eliminate Almonte.
 
Finally, at the heavyweight level, the Falcons had Adan Salazar competing, a far step up from his listed 197 class. Salazar faced off with Kutztown's Dustin Swanson in the first round. Swanson quickly built a 7-1 lead, then scored a takedown that turned into a fall at the 1:46 mark in the first period to knock Salazar down to the consy round. There, Salazar faced off against Centenary's Aidan MacKenzie. Neither competitor could score through the first two minutes, but MacKenzie eventually secured a fall at the 2:39 mark to end Salazar's day.
 
Lackawanna wrestling will continue to compete in the fall semester, with some upcoming exhibition matches at the Wilkes Quad duals with Keystone College, New Jersey City University, and Elmira College next Saturday, November 9^th. The duals are set to start at 4:00pm ET inside the Marts Center in Wilkes-Barre, PA.