Frazier’s Lawrence wins national tournament

By JONATHAN GUTH

MVI Sports

Frazier freshman Rune Lawrence has added another first for the Commodores’ wrestling program.

Lawrence won the championship in the freshmen division at the National High School Coaches’ Association tournament last Sunday in Virginia Beach, Va.

Lawrence had a tremendous high school season that culminated in a PIAA Class AA Championship in the 172-pound weight class. He was selected as the Mon Valley Independent’s wrestler of the year and was a member of the MVI-BeeGraphix Mat Warriors all-star team. 

Lawrence, who captured section, WPIAL, Southwest Region and Super Regional Championships, was 30-1 during his freshman campaign with his lone setback being a 3-2 loss to Dillon Walker of Moeller, Ohio, in the Powerade Tournament Championship final at 172 pounds.

Lawrence had some battles in winning the Class AA state title, but he easily ran through the competition at nationals.  He won his first four bouts by fall, then claimed a 2-0 decision in the final bout at 170 pounds.

Lawrence’s two-point victory over Landen Shurtleff of Utah wasn’t as close as the final score would indicate. Lawrence scored the only points he would need with 47 seconds left in the first period on a blast double. He rode out Shurtleff the entire second and third, but wasn’t able to get any turns for backpoints.

“I went out there and I was calm,” Lawrence said. “You could almost tell that the kid was a little bit nervous. He came out real hard and I think he was trying to get in my head or something. He was a little bit sloppy and tried to swing and hit clubs from anywhere. I capitalized on one of those, lowered my level, shot a blast double and took him down.

“I got to my Blair and put him to his back and the ref called a potentially dangerous. The rest of the match, I had to watch running a Blair because he was talking to me about it, and said if I run it again, it’s a point, so that kind of took away some of my top wrestling. I never looked at the bracket once that weekend. I knew what I was there to do, and I just had to get it done.”

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