VMI’s Murray Stays Alive After Day One at NCAA Wrestling Championships
AUBURN HILLS, Mich.- Making his first appearance at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, senior Corry Murray won two matches on opening day while also dropping his second round bout in the Championship bracket, while senior Sam Alvarenga dropped a pair of hard-fought matches to wrap up his stellar VMI wrestling career.
Murray won the only first round match in the 197-pound bracket, defeating Edinboro’s James Gibson by a 6-3 count. That earned him the right to take on Illinois’ Patrick Bond, ranked 13th at 197 in the most recent USA Today rankings. Murray hung tough, but lost a 4-3 decision on the riding time point, as Bond had collected 65 seconds of riding time, enough toassure him of the victory.
In his first consolation match, Murray took a 6-1 decision against Northern Iowa’s Anthony Anderson in his final match of the evening. That allows Murray to advance to take on Wisconsin’s Dallas Herbst, seeded 12th in the bracket, on Friday morning, as the early session is slated for an 11 a.m. CST start.
Alvarenga drew a tough assignment in his first round match, taking on the bracket’s fifth-seed in Gregor Gillespie of Edinboro. After falling behind early, Alvarenga fought back but dropped a 9-5 decision to the All-American, sending him to the Consolation bracket. In his first match there, Alvarenga went up against North Dakota State’s Ryan Adams, against whom he dropped a 6-4 decision. Alvarenga wraps up his stellar VMI career ranked third on the school’s wins list, posting 112 in his four years on post.
The 2003 Southern Conference Champion at 149 pounds, Alvarenga is one of only four Keydets to ever post multiple 30-win seasons in his career, capping his senior campaign with 34 victories.
“Corry’s wrestling very well right now, very efficiently, and he’s looking as sharp as he ever has,” said VMI head coach John Trudgeon. “Sam got off to a bad start in his first match, falling behind 7-0. He fought back to get it to 9-5 against the fifth-seed, but he banged up his hand during the match and just wasn’t sharp in the second match. I feel very badly about that, he’s had a great career at VMI and didn’t have one of his better matches to end his career with us. But that by no
means takes away from all that he has accomplished at VMI. So we’ll get back to work tomorrow morning with Corry, and hope he can keep up his success.”
Lowe finishes up day one competition at NCAA Championships
AUBURN HILLS, MI ? UNC Greensboro’s Joe Lowe is still alive after the opening day of wrestling at the NCAA Championships held in the Palace of Auburn Hills located in Auburn Hills, MI.
Lowe drew Edinboro’s Phil Moricone for his first match of the tournament and had a little revenge in mind. Despite losing to Moricone in December, Lowe came out on top this time with the 12-8 decision. He faced off with Cornell’s Joey Hooker for his second match and dropped the 4-1 decision.
Lowe takes on third-seeded Steve Luke from Michigan in wrestlebacks on Friday.
Ervin Knocked Out in Second Round of NCAA Championships
DETROIT, Mich.--Appalachian State had both its wrestlers defeated in the first day of wrestling at the NCAA Championships in Detroit, Mich. on Thursday. Scott Ervin (149 pounds) was defeated by Lance Palmer, 10-3, in the second round after Ervin won his first-round match with Derek Kipperberg. Neal Martin (174 pounds) lost a heartbreaking 8-6 decision to No. 4 seed James Yonushonis in the second round after a first-round bye.
In the first round, No. 7 seed Ervin (Weatherford, Okla./Weatherford) got the best of Oregon State senior Derek Kipperberg, winning 9-0. Neither wrestler was able to gain an advantage in the first period as both wrestlers battled for position and went to the second period deadlocked at 0-0. Finally Kipperberg attempted a shot at Ervin, but the ASU junior took advantage and scored a takedown with 1:12 left in the second period. Ervin began the third period with an escape and quickly added a takedown as well. A late near-fall put it away for the ASU grappler, and Ervin moved on to the second round.
The win was the first NCAA tournament victory in Ervin’s career, also coming in his first NCAA tournament.
In the second round, Ervin faced a familiar opponent, Lance Palmer from Ohio State. Palmer, the No. 10 seed in the tournament, had already faced Ervin and lost once this season, a 7-4 decision at the Wendy’s Duals on Jan. 21. Palmer advanced to the second round courtesy of defeating unseeded John Cox in the first.
The first period progressed without either wrestler gaining an edge as the two attempted to find the best strategy. In the second period, Ervin started from the down position and came around to earn the escape, going up 1-0. Action from that point was limited to the edge as the second period neared a close. However, a late flurry of action from Palmer quickly built a lead as the two went late into the third period. In the end, Ervin couldn’t find enough defenses, and Palmer came away with the 10-3 victory.
With the two results from Thursday, Ervin is 26-4 overall this season.
ASU teammate Neal Martin (Cobleskill, N.Y./Cobleskill-Richmondville) entered the tournament unseeded as an at-large selection, and as a reward was pitted up against the 174-pound bracket’s No. 4 James Yonushonis from Penn State in his first bout after a first-round bye. Martin, outmatched on paper against the senior All-American, still gave Yonushonis all he could handle in a 8-6 decision that pushed the Penn State wrestler into the third round.
Martin began the match with an immediate takedown for a 2-0 lead, and began building riding time with Yonushonis unable to escape. At the end of the first period, it was a 2-0 advantage for Martin with a surprising 2:35 riding-time edge. In the second period, Martin chose the down position and got out quickly to extend his lead to 3-0. However, the Penn State senior closed the gap with a pair of takedowns before the end of the period. Yonushonis proved his mettle in the third period, earning two takedowns in the final stanza to pull out an 8-6 decision after Martin’s riding-time point.
The loss was Martin’s 15th of the year, against 29 wins. He drops 12-9 in tournament matches and 0-1 all-time in NCAA matches in his first career Championships.
Ervin will try to extend his NCAA Championships tournament run in the wrestleback consolation bracket tomorrow. The junior will face the winner of Thursday night’s Morgan Atkinston (Fullerton)-Joe Caramanica (North Carolina State) match on Friday morning.