College Wrestling
Rider at NCAA Championships-Day Two
Fisch All-American
AUBURN HILLS, MICHIGAN?Rider University junior 141 Don Fisch (Williamstown, N.J./Delsea) won his first three matches over the fifth, 12th and fourth seeds to earn All-America honors at the 2007 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in the Palace of Auburn Hills. “I'm very pleased with the way Donnie wrestled,” said Rider head coach Gary Taylor.
In the semifinals Friday night Fisch lost 3-2 to the top seed, Ryan Lang of Northwestern on a controversial call. Fisch trailed 1-0 before scoring a takedown at the end of the second period to take a 2-1 lead. Fans thought Fisch had a takedown in the third period but it was not called, and Lang scored a takedown at the end of the period for the victory. “When an entire arena boos, there is a reason,” Taylor said. “Donnie clearly had a takedown that was not called, he had both legs but didn't get the call. Then with five seconds left the kid got Donnie from behind, and reaction time is supposed to be allowed and wasn't, giving the kid a takedown and the match. We protested but it was not upheld.”
Fisch will wrestle again Saturday morning in the consolations. He could finish as high as third and the lowest Fisch can finish is sixth. The top eight are All-Americans.
“It is a tough pill for us to swallow,” Taylor said. “Donnie beat a very good kid from Minnesota and controlled the top seed for all but the last seven seconds.”
In the quarterfinals, Fisch defeated the fourth seed, Manuel Rivera of Minnesota 10-4 Friday morning. In the first round Thursday morning Fisch upset the fifth seed, Dominick Moyer of Nebraska, 7-4, and then defeated the 12th seed, Cassio Perro of Illinois, 7-5.
“It is a shame that Donnie is not in the finals,” Taylor said. “He had a good chance to be in the finals and if he had gotten there, the way he is wrestling, he had a good chance to win.”
Junior 197 T. J. Morrison (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cedar Cliff) defeated Patrick Bond of Illinois 2-1 in overtime Friday afternoon in the consolations before being pinned in 2:35 by the tenth seed, Wynn Michalak of Central Michigan. Morrison went 2-2 at Nationals to finish the season 31-11.
On Thursday Morrison lost 3-1 to the fifth seed, Jerry Rinaldi of Cornell. In the consolations Morrison defeated Sam Wendland of Wyoming 3-2.
Senior 157 Nate Galloway (State College, Pa.) lost by fall (9:44) in double overtime sudden victory to the 12th seed, Matt Hill of Edinboro in the consolations Friday morning.
Galloway pinned Jacob Murphy of Purdue in 1:11 in the first round, before losing 5-2 to the second seed, Brian Stith of Arizona State. Galloway went 1-2 at Nationals and finished the season 11-6.
“So many people here went out of their way to come up to us and tell us how hard our kids wrestled, and we're very proud of that,” Taylor said.
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