Photo Gallery
Grantham, PA - No. 8 Messiah closed down the dual season with a dominating win over McDaniel, 43-5. The Falcons scored the first nine points of the dual and, after the Green Terror scored their only five points of the match, the Falcons wrapped up the win with 33 unanswered points.
The win moved the Falcons to 18-3, matching 1995 (18-6) and 2016 (18-2) for the third-most wins in program history behind a 21-2 season in 2014 and a 20-1 season in 2015. Messiah has collected 77 dual wins in the past four seasons.
Messiah will now take off for 10 days before entering the NCAA Mideast Regional Tournament next weekend at York College. The Tournament will be held across both Saturday, Feb. 25 and Feb. 26.
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History Falls
With his fall over (McDaniel) in the second period, Messiah's
Hunter Harris set a new single-season program record with his 29th pin. Incredibly, that broke the previous mark of 28 set by Dan Morrison way back in 1979.
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Harris' fall rate is stunning considering that 29 of his 37 wins have ended via arguably the most exciting finish in the sport. He also now has 55 career falls, tying him Morrison for second all-time behind
Josh Thomson's 61. Thomson graduated last season; Harris is a junior this year.
The Shutdown Takedown of Brubaker
Tonight was the Falcons' last-ever dual match in Brubaker Auditorium as they will compete next year in a renovated Hitchcock Arena. Messiah closed down Brubaker with a bang, too, as they collected 24 total takedowns and 12 four-points nearfalls in an impressive showing.
Larry Cannon earned six takeodwns of his own en route to a 17-3 and eventual pin over Eric Meyer. Notably,
Stephen Maloney grabbed three of the team's nearfalls in his first period alone in his tech fall win.
Senior Showcase
On Senior Day at Messiah the Falcons did not disappoint as the three seniors competing—
Marshall Myers,
Larry Cannon, and
Nick Havener—all delivered wins. Myers and Cannon each collected falls, with Havener taking a 10-0 lead before narrowly avoiding getting pinned at the end of the second period. He went on to finish with a hard-fought 11-7 decision.
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Prior to the match, all the seniors were recognized and gifted a framed Messiah singlet. The group included the three mentioned above alongside
Will Korzeniewski,
Josh Toal,
Tyler Hershey, and student assistant
Tyler Miller.
125 –
Marshall Myers (Messiah) over Nick Malinowski (McDaniel) – Major Decision, 15-2
133 –
Hunter Harris (Messiah) over Charles Wallace (McDaniel) – Fall (3:52)
141 – Alvantae Drummond (McDaniel) over
Matthew Darok (Messiah) – Tech Fall (3:48), 18-3
149 –
Stephen Maloney (Messiah) over Clint Wright (McDaniel) – Tech Fall (3:29), 15-0
157 –
Jeff Hojnacki (Messiah) over Wade Bishop (McDaniel) – Decision, 9-3
165 –
Larry Cannon (Messiah) over Eric Meyer (McDaniel) – Fall (3:54)
174 –
Ben Swarr (Messiah) over (McDaniel) – Forfeit
184 –
Derek Beitz (Messiah) over Jake Pooton (McDaniel) – Fall (5:28)
197 –
Karrington Washington (Messiah) over Ronald Mattox (McDaniel) – Major Decision, 19-5
285 –
Nick Havener (Messiah) over Billy Emerson (McDaniel) – Decision, 11-7
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