College Wrestling
Rider 10th of 59 at Midlands-Day One
EVANSTON, ILLINOIS—The Rider Broncs, ranked 10th in the nation by InterMat, are currently in 10th place, competing in the 52nd Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, hosted by Northwestern Illinois.
The Broncs won 19 of 34 matches on Monday and have four wrestlers alive in consolations.
“We let some matches get away from us so we could be doing better,” said Rider head coach Gary Taylor, “but that's what we're out here for, to learn and improve.”
Competition continues all day Tuesday. “The wrestlebacks tomorrow will simulate the (NCAA) National Tournament,” Taylor said, “and that's why we come out here. The grind of coming back. This is how you learn what it will be like at the NCAAs, getting up and going right back to it against top-caliber competition.”
Rider freshman Chad Walsh (Cherry Hill, NJ/Camden Catholic) is 3-1. “Walsh is wrestling hard and got off to a very good start,” Taylor said.
Walsh lost in the quarterfinals to Mike Kelly of Iowa 7-4 after winning his first three matches. Walsh won by fall in his first two matches before defeating Devin Geoghegan of Old Dominion 6-2 in the third round. The fourth seed at 157, Walsh pinned David Wesley of Virginia Tech in 3:33 in the first round and Rob King of F&M in 0:51 in the second round.
Junior Rob Deutsch (Cherry Hill, NJ/Eastern Regional) is 3-1, losing 4-3 in the third round to Ryan Taylor of Wisconsin. “Deutsch is wrestling well,” Taylor said.
The eighth seed at 133 after placing seventh last year at 125, Deutsch won in consolations by fall, pinning Vincent Pizzuto of Eastern Michigan and then defeating Andy Schultz of Bloomsburg 4-2. Deutsch defeated Chase Zemenak of Bloomsburg 7-1 in the second round after receiving a first round bye.
Senior Clint Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) is 3-1, winning twice in consolations. Morrison, the 10th seed at 184 lost 5-2 to Austin Gabel of Virginia Tech in the second round. Morrison defeated Scott Patrick of Davidson 2-1 in the first round. In consolations Morrison defeated Derek Nagel of Southern Illinois 10-3 and won in sudden victory (8-6) over Konner Witt of Air Force. “Clint came from behind to get the win over Air Force,” Taylor said.
Freshman B.J. Clagon (Toms River, NJ/Toms River South) is 2-1, losing in the quarterfinals on a tie breaker 2-1 to Jason Tsirtsis of Northwestern. “Clagon is wrestling hard,” Taylor said.
The eighth seed at 149, Clagon pinned Elroy Perkin of UW-Whitewater in just 24 seconds in the quarterfinals. In the second round Clagon won by a 13-5 major decision over TJ Ruschel of Wisconsin after receiving a first-round bye.
Rider senior Chuck Zeisloft (Woodbury Heights, NJ/Gateway) went 2-2, losing in the third round on a tie-breaker, 4-3, to Chris Mecate of Old Dominion after beating Jon Edwards of Indiana 8-3 in the second round. Zeisloft, the seventh seed, defeated Devlin Tortorice, a post-graduate, 5-3 in the first round this morning. In consolations, Zeisloft was pinned by Brock Erwin of Illinois.
Junior Greg Velasco (Union Beach, NJ/Keyport) went 2-2 at heavyweight. In the consolations, Velasco defeated Arthur Bunch of Northern Illinois 6-1 before losing 2-1 on a tie-breaker to Anthony Edgren of UW-Whitewater. Velasco lost 4-3 to Matt Tourdot of Old Dominion in the second round after a first round bye.
Junior Conor Brennan (Brick, NJ/Brick Twp.) finished 1-1, losing by medical forfeit in consolations. Brennan, the 11th seed at 165, lost 3-1 to Tristan Warner of Old Dominion in the third round. Brennan defeated Ben Schwery of South Dakota 3-1 in sudden victory in the second round, after receiving a first round bye.
Sophomore Ryan Wolfe (New Castle, Del./Caravel Academy) went 1-2. Wolfe, the 12th seed at 174 lost in the third round 11-7 to Nate Jackson of Indiana. Wolfe defeated Bradley Wokie of Penn 9-4 in the second round after receiving a first round bye. In consolations, Wolfe lost 8-3 to Scott Reilly of Air Force.
Senior Donald McNeil (Plainville, Mass./Wyoming Seminary), the 11th seed at 197 and placed at Midlands last year, went 1-2. In consolations McNeil lost 9-2 to Anthony Abro after a 7-4 win over Caleb Wallace of Binghamton in the consolations. McNeil lost 10-3 to Jake Tindle of Southern Illinois in the second round after a first round bye.
Sophomore J.R. Wert (Christiansburg, Va./Christiansburg), the 12th seed at 125,went 1-2, winning a 5-2 decision over Josh Polacek of Maryland in consolations.. Wert lost 10-7 in the first round to Luke Welsh of Purdue and lost 5-1 to Aaron Assad of Purdue in consolations.
The Broncs placed 15th of 47 teams at Midlands last year, 16th in 2008 and 12th in 2007.
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