Last week the Parkland High School boys wrestling team hosted its first Eastern Pennsylvania Conference dual match of the new year. The Trojans also headed across the state to compete in the Mid-Winter Mayhem event at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

In the dual match against Northampton, the Trojans won the opening bout and led 9-3 before Northampton answered and won seven of the last 10 bouts to take match 39-21 last Wednesday night. Parkland then wrestled in the two-day event at IUP and finished 18th overall out of 57 teams with 84.5 points. The Trojans finished ahead of conference foes in Emmaus (27th, 62.5 points), Pocono Mountain East (31st, 58.5 points) and Freedom (50th, 19 points).

Gavin Edwards earned a 3-1 decision at 215 pounds to get things going against the Kids and give his team an early 3-0 advantage. After Northampton answered with a decision of its own to tie the score, Matthew Velez picked up a pin in 1:33 at 107 pounds to take back the lead at 9-3. Once again, the Kids responded and recorded a pin to tie the score before Blake Dergham gave his team the lead right back with a 5-1 decision at 121 and a 12-9 edge.

But from there, Northampton rattled off back-to-back victories, a decision and pin to take its first lead at 18-12. Leo Kern stopped the momentum with a 9-3 decision at 139, but the Kids took control of the match from there with three straight wins to go on top 33-15. Jorge Moya pinned Daniel Herritt in 2:35 for Parkland’s final win of the match.

Over the weekend, Michael Gavrilesku had a strong run for the Trojans as he placed third overall after back-to-back pins in the first two rounds and a 5-2 decision in round three. He lost in a 4-2 decision in the quarterfinal round, but then rattled off four straight victories to claim third place.

Velez just missed on placing, as he lost in a 4-2 decision in the seventh place match. He still had four wins on the day, joining Faisal Amodu, Xander DeSelm, Dergham, Eli Russ, Jakob Peterson and Armando Fernandez as multi-win grapplers on the weekend.

Parkland has two conference matches this week in a span of four days, both at home, to conclude the week. The Trojans hosted Whitehall on Wednesday night and then welcome Freedom to Parkland High School on Saturday night.

With five matches left in the season, Parkland is 3-5 overall and 2-3 in EPC matches. The Trojans entered this week in 11th place in the District 11 Class 6A rankings needing to move up at least three places in order to qualify for the District 11 team tournament as the top eight teams in each classification earn the right to wrestle for the team title.