The Parkland wrestling teams won the seventh-place match over Stroudsburg, 55-18, at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference wrestling championship last Saturday at Easton Area Middle School.

Parkland head coach Jon Trenge was pleased with the victory but was disappointed with the pairing.

“Our team could, and probably should have wrestled Emmaus, who we beat earlier this season, for fifth in the league,” he said. “But we lost to Freedom (on Jan. 20) and that put us in for seventh and eighth. This is a tough pill to swallow since we had four starters out against Freedom and still only lost by less than 10 points.”

All things being equal, Trenge said he knows the deal.

“With our strongest lineup in there, we are better than Freedom and Emmaus,” Trenge said. “But you are only as good as you perform with the lineup you put out there.”

The Parkland lineup is good, but his boys have also room for improvement.

“Our team needs to work on durability and that comes with lifting more, wrestling more and being more committed to the sport,” he said. “We will get there.”

Last Saturday the Trojans showed Stroudsburg who’s boss. Phoenix DelVecchio, Leo Kern, Juan Moya, Victor Carrasquilla, Adrian Gacek and Aaron Ciampittiello all won their matches.

Blake Dergham was pinned by Stroudsburg’s Zachary Berwick. It was a rare loss for Parkland’s 106-pound stud. Dergham, along with Gacek, have all season been consistent winners. After the EPC, Dergham is 24-8 and Gacek is 26-4.

“Adrian and Blake are doing really well because of their commitment to wrestling and lifting weights in the off-season,” Trenge said. “Both are seasoned wrestlers with strong desires to win and compete hard.”

A week earlier the Trojans had a strong performance at the Coal Cracker Tournament at Lehighton High School, finishing seventh out of 44 schools. The Parkland junior varsity and several girls served noticed also they are for real.

“The junior varsity did very well,” the coach said. “Manny Monatalvo, Jacob Contreras, Eli Russ and Greg Muniz all won their brackets. The girls also did well against some really stiff competition. Shannon Fratus placed second in the girls tournament.”