College Wrestling
Rider at VA Duals-Day Two
Buffalo 27, Rider 15
HAMPTON, VIRGINIA-- The Broncs went 1-2 at the 32nd Virginia Duals National College Tournament Friday and Saturday with a line-up of underclassmen, due to injuries. "We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores in the line-up right now because of all the injuries," said Rider head coach Gary Taylor. "We're just going to keep fighting and try to get healed up and hopefully get our full line-up together."
After losing to North Carolina Friday morning, the Broncs came back to defeat Drexel Friday afternoon, before losing to Buffalo Saturday. "We had a lot of young kids who wrestled well this weekend," Taylor said, "along with some veterans who stepped up and got the job done in the win over Drexel."
For Rider (5-6), freshman Jimmy Morris (Northport, NY/St. Anthony's) went 3-0 in the tournament, winning again Saturday with a pin to tie the score at 6-6. "Jim had an outstanding tournament," Taylor said. "He's getting better every week and doing a nice job for us."
Freshman Clint Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) won Saturday for the second time in the tournament.
Freshman Patrick Sabatini (Bristol, PA/Bristol) won for the first time as a Bronc, cutting the Buffalo lead to 12-9. "He showed a lot of heart," Taylor said of the walk-on freshman. "We weighed him in just in case of injury and today he performed very well."
Freshman Donald McNeil (Plainville, Mass./Wyoming Seminary) also won for Rider against Buffalo.
"The positive side of all of this is that some people are getting good experience right now that is going to help them in the future," Taylor said. "We'd certainly like to win more matches, and with our full team we would have a better chance, but right now we have to play the cards that are dealt."
Rider takes to the mat again January 21 at the CAA Duals in Fairfax, Virginia, taking on Binghamton and host George Mason, but most likely will not yet be back to full strength. "It is frustrating because it is something you cannot control," Taylor said. "The injuries are severe enough that if we try to push it we would set the kids back to where they won't be able to come back on target. We will be cautious. We need to be ready for the end run (CAA Tournament and Nationals) and try to put our best team on the mat at that time. We have a good group when we have everybody in so we're working to get there. For now we'll just bite our lip and deal with adversity."
125 Sean Walton-B wbf Chuck Zeisloft-R 2:52 6-0
133 Jimmy Morris-R wbf Justin Farmer-B 3:06 6-6
141 Kevin Smith-B dec. Vinny Fava-R 7-4 9-6
149 Blake Roulo-B dec. Conor Brennan-R 4-3 12-6
157 Patrick Sabatini-R dec. Wally Maziarz-B 10-8 12-9
165 Mark Lewandowski-B tech fall James Brundage-R 15-0 17-9
174 Jake Waste-B major dec. Brandon Lintner-R 18-5 21-9
184 Clint Morrison-R dec. Zach Ward-B 8-2 21-12
197 Don McNeil-R dec. Justin Heiseman-B 12-5 21-15
Hwt Jedd Mason-B won by forfeit 27-15
