Midway through last Wednesday’s OHSL Liberty division meet, the Skaneateles wrestling team trailed Jordan-Elbridge, but that deficit would not last.

Victories in each of the last seven bouts, five of them on the mat, helped the Lakers defeat the Eagles 57-30 to improve its overall record to 5-3 and, more importantly, gain an early foothold in the league race.

Skaneateles caught Jordan-Elbridge coming off a week full of high emotions. On Dec. 12, Alex Parkolap, one of the Eagles’ senior wrestlers, suddenly passed away. Four days later, J-E won a tense 42-41 match over Port Byron on Steve Tripp’s pin of Kyler Hall in the 145-pound finale, the first time in six years that the Eagles had beaten the Panthers.

Now, having attended Parkolap’s wake and memorial service, J-E wrestled again at Skaneateles, and fell behind when the Lakers opened at 182 pounds with Pat Greenfield pinning Anthony Baron late in the first period to improve to 10-1 on the season. Then Joey McIntyre (195 pounds) moved to 11-1 with an 82-second fall over Ryan Rivenburgh.

But the Lakers did not have any wrestlers at 220, 285 or 99 pounds, leaving forfeits to Max Bondgren, Josh Roberts and Jessi Tripp, and while J.W. Simmons (106 pounds) pinned Jared Alpha in 1:46 to stay undefeated at 12-0, J-E countered with two pins by Derek Quigley (113 pounds) and Zach Harvey (120 pounds) that took less than a minute.

Skaneateles now trailed 30-18, but would not lose again as forfeits to Christian Daley (126 pounds) and Joe Winkler (132 pounds) evened the match at 30-30, and the rest was done by the Lakers on the mat.

Midway through the second period at 138 pounds, Joey Brillo pinned Marion Quigley to move to 12-1 on the season, while at 145 pounds Matt Goetzmann made it 12 wins in a row got his own second-period fall over Steve Tripp.

Following up, Josh O’Hara (152 pounds) overcame an early deficit to beat J-E”s Landry LaFleur 7-4, and from there James Leubner (160 pounds) took 54 seconds to pin Kamerin Langhorn as Ian Frackelton, at 170 pounds, pinned Jared Mills in 29 seconds to improve his season mark to 11-1.

Staying busy during the holiday break, Skaneateles wrestles in Friday’s Patriot Duals at Binghamton High School before a key league meet Jan. 4 against visiting Hannibal.