Frazier freshman second at Powerade

By JONATHAN GUTH

MVI Sports

Frazier’s Rune Lawrence was one victory shy of achieving Powerade Tournament gold as a freshman Saturday in the 172-pound final at the Monroeville Convention Center.

Lawrence, the younger brother of Thayne, a two-time state champion now wrestling at Lehigh, dropped a 3-2 decision to LaSalle’s Dillon Walker. While he didn’t win, he showed the wrestling world that he is for real in his run to the finals.

“I feel good, but I have a lot of work to do,” Lawrence said. “There are a lot of tough opponents ahead of me. I must get better on my feet. I really liked the environment of this tournament and having a lot of people watching me. It just didn’t work out. I’ll get back in the room and continue to work.”

Belle Vernon’s Cole Weightman (13-3, 53-11) placed fourth at 215 and Thomas Jefferson’s Brian Finnerty (18-3, 65-24) was sixth at 172.

Lawrence (12-1) was unseeded coming into the tournament, but he wasn’t intimidated by Walker, who was the top seed and ranked 12th in the country by FloWrestling.

Lawrence was aggressive in the first period, as he attempted a shot 30 seconds in that was fought off by Walker. Following a scoreless first, Lawrence deferred to Walker, who took bottom and escaped for a 1-0 lead with 1:54 left in the second. Lawrence tied the bout with an escape 13 seconds into the third and got close to scoring with 1:22 remaining. Walker’s defensive style paid off when he scored off a shot by Lawrence with 42 seconds remaining. Lawrence escaped but wasn’t able to get the winning takedown.

“I will definitely say that was a bad shot I took when he scored,” Lawrence said. “I was just trying to push the pace and hopefully get a stall call. I was all in and he was just backing up most of the time and reacting. I need to get some better setups on my feet.”

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