In last Wednesday’s dual meet against Nazareth, the Konkrete Kids’ wrestling team needed a few things to go their way to beat the Blue Eagles for the first time since the 2018-19 season. Unfortunately for the Northampton faithful that came out to watch the old rivals go at it, not much did as Nazareth prevailed 37-23.

The competition opened at 133 pounds and while Trey Wagner scored a 9-1 major decision over Dominick Tunison, it required a pair of nearfall points at the buzzer to secure a bonus team point. It was certainly a match that the Kids were hoping to bank the full six.

At that point, head coach Joe Provini made the only strategic move that he had available to him. He bumped up his normal 139 through 152-pound wrestlers to avoid Nazareth’s Tahir Parkins (who wound up pinning Kody Ziegenfus). Provini described the thought process, “We needed at least one win there. To try to get to 7 wins, we needed 1. We thought going straight up gave us 2 shots at a win. Bumping up gave 3 shots at a win. We came up short in all three and that’s the way it goes sometimes.”

Chase Grabfelder was down 4-2 when he got pinned by Jack Campbell after taking the defensive position to start the second period. Austin Noe dropped a 4-1 decision to Cade Campbell at 152. Devlin Chevere lost 4-1 to Elijah Simak at 160. Nazareth led 18-4 at that point.

The teams exchanged first period pins at 172 and 189. The Blue Eagles’ Brayden Zuecher pinned Chace Roland in 1:13. Landon Roland got the six points back for Northampton by decking Vincent Giacobbe in :53. Jake Koch received a forfeit at 215. The team score was 24-16 with 5 bouts remaining.

An intriguing matchup between the K-Kids’ rapidly improving junior heavyweight Gavin Grell and Nazareth 2-time state champion Sean Kinney did not happen because of a skin issue. Kinney pinned Brandon McIntire to boost the Blue Eagles to a 30-16 lead.

At 107 Michael DiSante held a 3-2 lead after the first period against Derek Fulmer before dropping an 11-3 major decision.

Gabe Ballard had a dominating 13-2 major decision against Remy Trach at 114 to run his record to 20-1 on the season. The Kids had needed a fall to stay mathematically alive in the match as Nazareth now led 34-20 with 2 bouts left.

The Maranos split a pair of decisions at 121 and 127. Ryan fell 7-3 to Cooper Wenrich and Colin beat Dominic Rizzotto 9-3.

While the nightcap was a disappointment for K-Kids’ fans, the Northampton girls started off the evening with a dramatic come-from-behind win, 33-30, to take the first ever dual meet between the programs.

Danielle Glaser was the hero of the night as she came out for the final bout with the Kids trailing 30-27 and pinned her Nazareth opponent in 3:43.

“I was nervous a little bit because I knew it was going to come down to me and I was worried about the outcome,” explained Glaser. “I wrestled the girl before, so I knew a little bit what to expect, but I was still worried.”

The first-year wrestler described what the experience of competing in a new sport has been like for her, “It’s amazing. Training is so fun and it’s so fun to have other girls to train with and relate to.”

Northampton had two other non-forfeit wins, both in dramatic fashion. Juliana Joseph was trailing 10-4 after the first period, but when her opponent took the defensive position to start the second period, Joseph never let her back up, scoring the pin in 3:14.

Jaida Onyango scored 2 points in the third period on an escape and a technical violation to pull out a 7-5 decision.

Provini spoke about the girls match, “The girls were awesome. Two of our starters were home sick and just like the boys, it’s next girl up and they came through in the end. It’s so much fun to watch them. It’s as pure as you can get in the sport. They just go out there and try to score. If my boys wrestled a little more like that, it would be a huge help to them. We have yet to do that as a team, just go out and wrestle freely.”