College Wrestling
Rider 24th of 42 at Midlands
EVANSTON, IL-The Rider wrestling team is competing in the 49th annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, hosted by Northwestern University. The Midlands takes place December 29-30 at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena.
"We saw some good things and we saw some bad things," said Rider head coach Gary Taylor. "This is a tough tournament and we beat some good wrestlers and suffered some injuries. That's all part of being out here. This is a great preparation for the conference and NCAA tournaments."
It is the most prestigious amateur wrestling event in the nation, featuring the best collegiate and post-graduate wrestlers along with Olympic hopefuls.
For Rider, junior Brandon Lintner (Little Egg Harbor, NJ/Pinelands Regional) went 3-2, replacing nationally ranked Jim Resnick, who is still recovering from a rib injury. "Brandon keeps getting better," Taylor said.
Lintner won 12-9 over Marcus Armato of Oklahoma and 7-4 over Ryan Darch of Clarion in consolations at 174 before pinning Anthony Bill of C. Michigan. Lintner lost 6-3 in the first round and was pinned by Mickey England of Iowa State in consolations. "He competed hard," Taylor said. "He's wrestling well right now."
Sophomore Chuck Zeisloft (Woodbury Heights, N.J./Gateway) went 2-2 in the tournament. Zeisloft defeated Shane McQuade of Wisconsin 6-1 before being pinned by the tenth seed, Tyler Iwamura of Cal Bakersfield in the consolations. Zeisloft lost 2-0 to the third seed at 125, Jarrod Petterson of Oklahoma in the second round. Zeisloft defeated Grant Greene of NU 9-4 in the first round.
Sophomore Ramon Santiago (Sayreville, N.J./Sayreville) went 2-2. "Ramon had some good matches," Taylor said.
Santiago lost 4-1 in consolations Nick Moore of Iowa. Santiago lost 9-0 to the eighth seed, Aaron Sulzer of E. Michigan in the third round. Santiago defeated Ross Grande of Nebraska 6-0 in the second round after upsetting the ninth seed from Lehigh, Joey Napoli 5-3 in the first round at 157.
Junior Zac Cibula (Luxemburg, Wis./Luxemburg Casco), the 11th seed at 149, went 1-1. Cibula lost to the sixth seed, David Habat of Edinboro in the third round. Cibula defeated Joe Cozart of Iowa State 7-3 in the second round after receiving a first round bye, and did not compete in consolations due to injury. "We're a little upset with Zac getting hurt after we just got him back from injury," Taylor said. "That hurts."
Sophomore James Brundage (Ossining, N.Y./Ossining) went 1-2. Brundage won 5-1 in consolations over Ethan Smith of Utah Valley before losing 10-3 to the seventh seed, Luke Manuel of DCAC. Brundage lost 6-0 to the ninth seed at 165, Ben Jordan of Wisconsin in the first round,
Freshman Clint Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) went 1-2. Morrison defeated Jeremy Fahler of Iowa 2-1 in the first round at 184 before losing to the third seed, Ben Bennett of Central Michigan. In the consolations Morrison lost to Mike Curby.
Freshman Jimmy Morris (Northport, NY/St. Anthony's) went 1-2. Morris won by tech fall over Collin Crume in the second round of consolations at 133 before losing 9-7 to Ryan Fillingame of Adams State. Morris was pinned in the first round and advanced in the first round of consolations by medical forfeit.
Freshman Donald McNeil (Plainville, Mass./Wyoming Seminary) went 0-2. McNeil lost 8-3 to the sixth seed at 197, Danny Mitchell of American, in the first round and then lost to the 11th seed, Dan Rinaldi of Rutgers, 4-2 in consolations.
Senior Jimmy Kirchner (Somerville, N.J./Somerville) went 0-2. Kirchner, the ninth seed at 141, lost 10-7 in consolations to Colin Shober of NU. Kirchner lost 10-5 to Avery Garner of Utah Valley in the second round after receiving a first round bye.
"I do see improvement up and down the line up," Taylor said.
The Broncs take to the mat again January 6 when Rider takes on Harvard and Brown at Rutgers.
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