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College Wrestling
Rider at NCAA Championships
OMAHA, NEBRASKA-The Broncs won just one of 13 matches on the first day at the 2010 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Thursday, held at the Qwest Center. All six Rider wrestlers have been eliminated. "Just a very tough day," said Rider head coach Gary Taylor. "It's not that we didn't wrestle hard. We just didn't wrestle the way we are capable of. This is a national tournament so if you are not wrestling at your best, you are in trouble."
Sophomore 197 Tyler Smith (Phillipsburg, N.J./Belvidere) won his preliminary match 10-3 over Dylan Temple (22-9) of Appalachian State. "The day got off to a good start with Tyler winning in the pigtail match," Taylor said.
Smith was then pinned (2:59) by the #2 seed, Craig Brester of Nebraska, in the first round. In the consolations Thursday night, Smith (24-16) lost 7-3 to Richard Starks of Army.
Senior heavyweight Ed Bordas (Montgomery, NY/Valley Central) lost 3-2 on a tie breaker to Eric Nye (21-13) of Arizona State in the first round. Bordas (32-9), ranked 20th in the nation, lost 5-1 to Eric Bugenhagen of Wisconsin in the consolations Thursday evening.
Senior 149 Michael Kessler (Randallstown, MD/Owings Mills) lost 8-3 to Bobby Ward (26-8) of North Carolina State in the first round. Kessler (25-13) lost 6-3 Cesar Grajales of Penn in the consolations Thursday night and finishes his Rider career with 99 wins.
Junior 165 Rob Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) lost 14-4 to the #10 seed, Alex Meade (29-8) of Oklahoma State in the first round. Thursday night Morrison (26-15) lost 7-1 to Kyle Bounds of Michigan State in the consolations.
Sophomore 133 Jimmy Kirchner (Somerville) lost 8-5 to Kelly Kubec (36-8) of Oregon State in the first round. Kirchner was pinned by Kubec earlier this season. "Jimmy lost pretty badly to the Oregon State kid at Midlands," Taylor said, "but today he lost a fairly close match to him."
Thursday evening Kirchner (21-13) lost 11-5 to Kevin Smith of Buffalo in the consolations.
Freshman 174 Jim Resnick (Media, Pa./Penncrest) lost 10-1 to the eighth seed, Colby Covington (39-5) of Oregon State in the first round. Resnick (19-17) lost 6-3 to Phillip Moricone of Edinboro in the consolations Thursday evening.
Of the six National Qualifiers, four return next year. "All we can hope is that with the young kids the experience will help them in the future," Taylor said. "The disappointment of not winning a match will drive them next year. Now they understand how serious this is. You can tell them forever but until they actually see what they are up against and how hard it is to win matches out here, they won't really know. Now they know."
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