College Wrestling
Broncs 3rd of 11 at Keystone Classic
Resnick Champion, Kirchner Runner-Up, Zeisloft and Brundage Third
Other Broncs placed fourth, fifth and sixth
PHILADELPHIA, PA-The Broncs placed third of 11 teams at the 17th annual Keystone Classic, hosted by the University of Pennsylvania at the Palestra. "I am pleased with our performance, very much," said Rider head coach Gary Taylor. "We fought hard and got some nice wins. We saw a lot of good things today."
Junior Jim Resnick (Media, Pa./Penncrest) won his 174 weight class for the second consecutive tournament. "He beat a very good wrestler in the finals," Taylor said.
The top seed at 174, Resnick won with a takedown 22 seconds into sudden victory over the second seed, nationally ranked Leroy Munster of Northwestern in the finals. Resnick beat the fifth seed, Matt Brock of VMI 7-1 in the semifinals. Resnick, ranked 12th in the nation, tech falled Nick Vetell of App. State 15-0 before winning 9-2 over Ricky McDonald of Brown 9-2 in the quarterfinals.
Resnick won the 2010 Keystone Classic at 165.
Senior Jimmy Kirchner (Somerville, N.J./Somerville) finished runner-up at 141. "Jimmy looked real good in the finals against the ninth ranked wrestler in the country," Taylor said. ""That match could have gone either way."
Kirchner lost 4-3 in the finals against the top seed, Matt Mariacher of American. Kirchner, the third seed at 141, won 6-2 in the semifinals against the number two seed, Mike Kessler of App. State. (no relation to the Kesslers who wrestled at Rider.) Kirchner defeated Mark Pinero of Penn 11-5 in the quarterfinals after defeating Patrick Hogan of Harvard 10-2 and getting a major decision in the first round over Rob Sheppard of Princeton 11-3.
Kirchner placed third at Keystone last year.
Sophomore Chuck Zeisloft (Woodbury Heights, N.J./Gateway) placed third. Zeisloft, the sixth seed at 125, defeated the third seed, Thomas Williams of American 6-5 for third place. "Chuck beat Williams twice and he's a very good wrestler," Taylor said.
Zeisloft lost 8-6 to the second seed, Garret Frey of Princeton in the semi-finals. In the consolations Zeisloft defeated Tony Gravely of App. State 10-7. Zeisloft tech falled Mayo Mike of Boston U. 15-0 in the first round before upsetting Williams 5-3 on a tie-breaker.
Sophomore James Brundage (Ossining, N.Y./Ossining) defeated the second seed, Pierce Harger of Northwestern 5-4 for third place. "He's wrestling well," Taylor said.
Brundage, the sixth seed at 165, defeated the fifth seed, Kevin Bialka of Northwestern, 10-5 in consolations. Brundage won a 12-2 major decision in consolations over Pat Labuz of Brown and then pinned Ryan Harding of Duke in 2:56. Brundage defeated Sean McCarty of American 4-1 in the first round before losing to the third seed, Lorenzo Thomas of Penn, 4-3. "He got a tough call," Taylor said. "He very well could have been in the finals. In my opinion he deserved to be in the finals, and if he had we would have placed second as a team."
Sophomore Evan Craig (Clarks Summit, Pa./Abington Heights) placed fourth. In the consolations Craig pinned Steven Grziano of Penn in 6:22 before losing 4-2 to the second seed, Blake Herrin of American in the battle for third place. Craig, the fifth seed at heavyweight, was pinned in the semifinal (2:18) by the top seed, Mike McMullan of Northwestern. Craig defeated Anthony DiLonardo of Penn 7-2 in the first round and defeated the fourth seed, David Ng of Harvard 2-1 in the quarterfinals.
Freshman Donald McNeil (Plainville, Mass./Wyoming Seminary) placed fifth. The sixth seed at 197, McNeil was pinned by the fifth seed, Alex Polizzi of Northwestern in the consolations, but came back to defeat the second seed, John Schoen of Northwestern in the battle for fifth. McNeil defeated Kurt Brendel of Princeton 4-1 in first round of consolations. McNeil lost 3-2 to the third seed from Brown, Sterling Hecox, after a first round bye.
Freshman Vinny Fava (Elmwood Park, N.J./Elmwood Park) placed sixth. Fava, the fifth seed at 133, lost 14-2 to the third seed, Brandon Gambucci of Duke in consolations, and then lost 10-2 in the battle for fifth place to Chris Perez of Princeton. In the consolations Fava defeated Jeff Canfora of Penn 4-2 and Brett Boston of App. State 6-5 before losing to Gambucci. Fava defeated Ryan Osleeb of Harvard 3-1 in the first round before losing 3-2 to the fourth seed, Chris Perez of Princeton.
"Placing seven (of 10) wrestlers is a very good sign of things to come this year with such a young team," Taylor said. "We were not at full strength today, missing a few of our starters, but we still managed to do well."
Senior Aaron Nestor (Transfer, Pa./Reynolds) went 2-2. Nestor lost in the quarterfinals to the second seed, Nestor Taffur of Boston U. 9-4. Nestor upset the seventh seed, David Yost of VMI 4-2 and beat David Helmer of Northwestern 3-2 before losing to his CAA rival from BU. In the consolations Nestor lost 4-2 to Russ Benner of App. State.
Junior Brandon Lintner (Little Egg Harbor, NJ/Pinelands Regional) went 2-2. Lintner pinned Van Grimes of VMI in 1:35 in the first round at 165 before losing 10-2 to the top seed, Kyle Blevins of App. State. In the consolations Lintner defeated Sean McCarty of American 6-5 before losing to the fourth seed, Kyle Czarnecki of Boston U. 2-0.
Freshman Frank Crocco (Little Falls, N.J./Passaic Valley) went 2-2. Crocco upset the fourth seed at 157, Nick Tourville of Boston U. 5-3 in the opening round before losing to the fifth seed, Chip Powell of App. State. In the consolations Crocco won by fall (5:10) over the sixth seed, Mitchel Wightman of Boston U. before losing to Dylan Marriott of Northwestern 6-2.
Junior Mark Maestrey (Beachwood, NJ/Toms River South) went 1-2. In the consolations, Maestrey won a 17-6 major decision over Chris Brienza of American in consolations before being pinned by the third seed, Thomas Williams of American. Maestrey lost 13-0 to the top seed at 125, Levi Mele of Northwestern
Sophomore Chris Spagnola (Monroe Township, N.J./St. John Vianney) went 0-2. In the consolations Spagnola lost 4-3 to Jon Hartley of App. State. Spagnola lost 8-2 to Mike Wrin of Boston U. in the first round at 184.
The Broncs placed fourth of 12 teams at the Keystone Classic last year. "We're still young but we're plugging away, hard at it," Taylor said.
Rider hosts Old Dominion December 3 in a Colonial Athletic Association dual meet beginning at 7pm.
Team standings: Northwestern 140, Appalachian State 97, Rider 92.5, Princeton 90.5, Harvard 90, Penn 84.5, Boston U. 76.5, American 75, Brown 56, Duke 33, VMI 26.5
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