Pembroke Open
Davidson
Pembroke, N.C. - Senior Trebor Clavette advanced to the championship match at 174, while sophomore Ben Altman and junior Sam O'Hair finished fourth in their respective weight classes as the Davidson wrestling team opened the 2007-08 campaign at the UNC Pembroke Open Saturday.
Clavette won his first four matches, including a 13-2 decision in the semifinals, to advance to the championship round, where he lost a hard-fought 8-7 decision to Randy Oates of George Mason.
Altman won three matches at 125 before losing to eventual champion Matthew Oliver in the semifinals. He suffered a 9-4 setback in the third-place match.
O'Hair won his first three matches at 184 before losing 9-3 in the quarterfinals. He battled back for four wins in the Wrestleback bracket before losing 4-1 in the third-place match.
Sophomore Mike Waters advanced to the quarterfinals at 197 and then suffered a tough 6-5 decision in Wrestlebacks.
Sophomore Carl Sandercock, who saw his first collegiate action after missing the 2006-07 campaign with injuries, won his first two matches at 141 before falling 6-1 to the eventual champion. He suffered a close 4-2 loss in Wrestlebacks to finish the weekend 2-2. Classmate Ben Thompson competed in two matches at 141, falling 7-3 in the Championship bracket and 5-2 in Wrestlbacks.
Three Davidson freshman earned their first collegiate victories. Vitali Radsky lost his first match at 125 but recovered to win four matches before falling in the semifinals of the Wrestleback bracket.
Twin brother Alex Radsky won his first match at 133 before suffering consecutive setbacks, and Joe McGinley won two matches in the Wrestleback bracket after falling in his first match of the afternoon. Heavyweight Charlie Wolff also won a match in Wresteback and fell 3-2 in his second outing of the bracket.
The Wildcats return to action at the Navy Classic Saturday, Nov. 17.
VMI
PEMBROKE, N.C.- Senior Tyler Anthony and sophomore Brandon Franklin each won their weight class while competing unattached at the Pembroke Open, hosted by UNC Pembroke on Saturday. Anthony and Franklin were among four placewinners for the Keydets, joining senior Dustin McCabe, who placed fourth at 174 pounds, and senior Jeremy Adams who placed sixth at 125 pounds.
Anthony, who was the top seed at 141, ran off five decisions on his way to the individual title, defeating Newberry’s sixth-seeded Kyle Packer 5-2 in the final. Along the way, Anthony defeated fourth-seeded George Mason’s Brandon Bucher 4-2, GMU’s Will Powars 3-2, Davidson’s Carl Sandercock 6-1 and Spartanburg Methodist’s Carlos Morales 6-3. The title is Anthony’s first collegiate championship after placing second at last year’s Pembroke Open at 133 pounds.
McCabe, who drew the sixth seed, lost his first match against GMU’s Randy Oates by a 15-8 margin, before running off five straight wins to reach the third-place match. McCabe then dropped a 3-2 decision to Limestone’s Joby Shreckhise to finish in fourth place at 174 pounds.
Meanwhile, seventh-seeded Adams shut out his first two opponents before suffering an 8-7 setback to GMU’s Denny Herndon in the Championship Quarterfinals. Adams fought back with two wins to reach the Wrestleback Semifinals, there falling to top-seeded Ben Altman of Davidson by an 11-2 count. Adams was then pinned in 1:46 against sixth-seeded Paul Sanford of The Citadel to finish in sixth place.
Franklin entered the 157-pound weight class as the fourth-seed, and backed up that seeding with a 17-0 technical fall victory in his first fight before pinning Cumberlands’ Grant Hoppel at 5:00. Franklin, who competed at 133 pounds last season, then posted a 2-1 decision over Duke’s Voris Tejada, then advanced to the Final with a 12-5 win against Southern Virginia’s Peter Rose. In the final, Franklin knocked off sixth-seeded Keith Koziel of The Citadel 8-4 to cap an outstanding day.
Freshman Ryan Goodsell won four matches while falling just one victory short of the fifth-place match while competing at 133 pounds.
The Keydets return to action next Saturday, competing at the Keystone Classic held in Philadelphia at The Palestra.
HEAD COACH JOHN TRUDGEON- “Overall, our guys got to wrestle a lot of matches which enables us to get competitive experience, which we certainly need right now. I believe Dustin wrestled seven matches and Jeremy did also. So that aspect of the tournament served its purpose. Tyler won a lot of close matches, he had some real barn-burners. Brandon was sharp and wrestled much better technically than last year, even with moving up two weight classes. Dustin wrestled aggressively and Jeremy was out there for the first time since getting injured at this tournament a year ago. Now our focus is to get healthy, we’ll have everybody back on the mats on Monday for the first time in a while. We’ve got to gear up for the Keystone Classic this weekend, it will be a big step up from what we saw here this weekend. But overall, I thought it was a solid effort out of our guys.”