PRINCETON, NJ – The Rider University wrestling team enjoyed a successful day at the Princeton Open Sunday to open the 2018-19 season. Three Broncs wrestling attached finished in the top six, led by junior Jonathan Tropea's (Harrington Park, NJ/Saint Joseph (Montvale)) second-place finish at 125. Redshirt senior Michale Fagg-Daves (Somerset, NJ/Franklin) also finished third at 184, while Gino Fluri (Blairstown, NJ/North Warren Regional) finished sixth at 157. Also of note was sophomore Ethan Laird's (Waterford, PA/General McLane) win over 10^th-ranked Chris Weiler of Lehigh at 197.

Tropea made it all the way to the finals at 125 on the strength of wins over Joe Manchio (Columbia, 9-5),  Conner Ziegler (Army West Point, 14-6 major decision), Jarod Kosman (Maryland, 10-5) and Nic Aguilar (Rutgers, 6-4). He'd fall in the championship bout to Princeton's Patrick Glory by fall at 3:36.

Fagg-Daves defeated Purdue's Max Lyon, 7-6, and Army West Point's Noah Stewart, 4-2, before falling to Princeton's Kevin Parker, 9-2, in the semifinals. He finished third by a medical forfeit from Maryland's Jaron Smith.

After falling in his first match of the day, Fluri wrestled all the way back to sixth place with four-straight consolation-bracket wins. He defeated Old Dominion's Cole Smith by fall at the five-minute mark, Columbia's Sam Ward by major decision, 16-7, and followed with a pair of 9-5 decisions over Lehigh's Brian Meyer and Stanford's Jared Hill.  

Quotes & Notes
"We entered nine attached wrestlers and placed three of them in the top six. We also earned a win over the No. 10 ranked wrestler at 197 lbs. All things to build on."

"With a young team, these preseason tournaments are critical to find out who we are and what we need to work on. There is lots of room for improvement and we will get back to work this week." – Rider Head Coach John Hangey

- Freshman Chris Wright (Harrisburg, PA/Central Dauphin) wrestled unattached and finished sixth. He won his first collegiate match by fall at the six-minute mark over Maryland's Orion Anderson. He went on to win four more consolation-bracket matches before falling in the fifth-place match.  
- Fellow freshman George Walton also made his collegiate debut, defeating Hofstra's Corey Langner by 19-7 major decision and Army West Point's Jed Smith in sudden victory 1, 9-7, before losing to Princeton's Travis Stefanik, 3-2 in quarters. He then defeated Rutgers' Anthony Olivieri by fall at 1:51, before falling in sudden victory 1, 4-2, to Rutgers' Willie Scott.