MONTAGUE — The Franklin Tech wrestling team needed victories from its heavyweights to pick up a win over Westfield on Wednesday night. Jackson Morey and Dillon Laffond accomplished the task in forceful fashion, securing a 42-30 win over the Bombers in Franklin Tech’s Suburban League opener.
The wrestlers who experienced success last year wrestled dominantly. But a new group of wrestlers who are somewhat new to the mat have some work to do.
“Lots of room for improvement,” Franklin Tech coach Mike Aiken said. “Lots of simple mistakes with some of our less experienced guys. For the the most part our experienced guys wrestled well for us. That’s the reason we were able to come out on top tonight.”
The score was 30-30 before the heavyweight matches. At 215 pounds, Jackson Morey stepped on to the mat and pinned Jamal Echerverria in 36 seconds.
“It usually comes down to us,” Morey said. “It’s been like that. It puts the pressure on us. But I like that kind of pressure. It’s good to be back at the weeknight matches. I feel like we did well. We have a lot of younger guys. New guys. I feel like we are going to be good as long as we keep on working.”
Laffond pinned Antony Lytvynchuk in one minute, 25 seconds. Even with the seemingly quick win, Laffond took his time to gain leverage and get the Westfield wrestler to the ground.
“I kind of used my size to my advantage,” Laffond said. “I was a little bit bigger, a little bit stronger. [The match] was a little bit closer than I thought. We had four or five first years starting today so we are happy with the overall outcome of the match. A win is a win. The start of many.”
Seeing his heavyweights come through to secure a win is nothing new to Aiken.
“They’ve been doing that for a few years now,” Aiken said. “They are a big part of it. We got a lot of trust in Jackson (Morey) and Dillon (Laffond) and Seamus (Collins) as well at 215. We have guys that we can trust and rely on. It’s nice to be able to finish a match. They do well with the pressure. There’s a lot of pressure when the whole match is on the line.”
Landon Purington picked up Franklin Tech’s first win of the match at 128 pounds. Purington made quick work of Westfield’s Braeden White, pinning him in 44 seconds.
“I could have done better,” Purington said. “I was just going off how he was moving. I just countered that. It feels pretty good to win the first league match. I think we are going to do pretty well. Hopefully we win league and go back to back.”
Franklin Tech’s next Suburban league match up is against Longmeadow at home on Dec. 23 at 5:30.
“We are getting there,” Aiken said. “Getting a win is tough. We got a win against a new league opponent and we’ll build on that.”
Carsten Couture picked up a win at 150 pounds, pinning Evan Paradis in the second period (3:34). Owen LeBlanc won at 157 pounds, pinning Ethan Houle (1:05)
Camden Bonnett wrestled hard but got pinned in the third period at 165 pounds.
There was a double-forfeit at 106 pounds. Franklin Tech took a loss at 113 pounds when Paul Giard (120 pounds) got pinned in one minute, 19 seconds. Kaylan Costello took the loss at 126 pounds. There was another forfeit at 132 pounds. Samuel Bodenstein got pinned at 144 pounds. Westfield had to forfeit two weight classes.