VMI’s Barrow repeats as champion at Davidson Open
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Junior Leon Barrow repeated his heavyweight championship at the Davidson Open on Saturday to lead VMI to a fifth-place team finish.
Barrow (Williamsburg, Va./Lafayette), who claimed the heavyweight title at last year's Davidson Open, ran off four consecutive wins to claim his second career collegiate title. He began his run with an 11-3 major decision over Duke's Andrew Fulk, before posting decisions against Belmont Abbey's Tom McGee and Anderson's Jonah Adams to advance to the championship final. There, he claimed a 3-2 decision over UNC Pembroke's Erik Stancil.
While Barrow was VMI's only placewinner in the event, three other Keydets finished just one match shy of doing so. Freshman Matt Brock went 4-2 at 157 lbs., picking up a pair of wins over Appalachian State's Travis Puckett, including one via pin. Sophomore Ronnie Ellsworth won a pair of matches at 197 lbs. with a pin against Virginia Tech's Tim Miller, while redshirt sophomore John Pope also came up just a match short of placing at 125 lbs.
Junior Michael Long and redshirt freshman Joel Hutchens each won a pair of matches at 149, while sophomore Doug Nesmith also won back-to-back matches in the consolation bracket at 174.
The VMI wrestling team returns to action on Dec. 29-30, competing at The Midlands Open in Evanston, Ill.
Davidson wrestling hosted Davidson Open
DAVIDSON, N.C. - Sophomore Vitaly Radsky took home his first career tournament victory in the 141-pound weight class to lead a strong performance for the Wildcat wrestlers at the Davidson Open Saturday at the Knobloch Tennis Center.
Radsky registered a pair of pins during his action on the day, including one in 2:49 against his opponent in the finals to wrap up the title. He won five matches overall, by a combined score of 23-6 in the three that did not end in pins.
Two other ?Cats made the finals in their respective weight classes, with Ben Altman and Sam O’Hair both falling in the final match to opponents that were one of the top-two seeds in the entire bracket. Altman, who took wins in his previous three matches courtesy of a pin and two technical falls, dropped a 2-1 decision in the championship match to come in second place.
O’Hair repeated his runner-up finish in this event from last year, lost the No. 1 seed in his class after two wins got him into the finals, one of which was a pin in only 1:09.
Freshman Tyler Mullen recorded the best tournament finish of his career, taking third place honors after falling in the semifinals of the 165-pound weight class. After being relegated to the consolation bracket, Mullen took an 8-2 decision followed by a 1-0 win in the third-place match over teammate and classmate Thomas Jasterbski.
Fellow freshman Jorge Estrada finished in fourth place at 197 to complete his day at the Open. Estrada, who lost in the opening round, rattled off four consecutive wins to reach the consolation finals. On his way, Estrada recorded one of the fastest falls of the tournament, pinning his opponent just 34 seconds into their match.
At 149, David DeCamp fell in his opening match, then won three matches before losing a 17-11 battle to VMI’s Joseph Munno. Carl Sandercock, who advanced to the second round in 149, had his day ended via a 4-0 loss to DeCamp.
Joe McGinley turned in one of his top performances of the season, winning his opening two matches until suffering back-to-back defeats at 157. Senior Kevin Cook, competing in his final Davidson Open, made his way into the semifinals of the 174-pound bracket, then dropping two matches to close out his day in fifth place.
Closing out the Wildcat performances was 285-pound competitor Charlie Wolff, who picked up an 8-1 decision over Belmont’s Alex Denielli, then followed that up with a 3-1 win over Tarek Alaruri of Limestone. He then fell twice, once in the top bracket, then again in his consolation finals.
The ?Cats will now head to a pair of meets to close out month. On Dec. 16, they will head to Doylestown, Pa. to take part in a tri-meet with Delaware State and Delaware Valley College, taking on both schools in back-to-back dual matches. Then, over the weekend of Dec. 29-30, they will travel up to Greensboro, N.C. for the Southern Scuffle.
UNC Greensboro wraps up Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Inv.
Day 1 (Dec. 5)
LAS VEGAS, NV ? UNC Greensboro wrestler Byron Sigmon advanced to the quarterfinals to lead the Spartans during the first day of the 27th Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational on Friday. Four of the six UNCG wrestlers are still alive in the tournament after the first day.
Sigmon, a sophomore from Claremont, NC, won his first two matches of the day before losing against Steve Luke, who is ranked No. 1 in the nation at 174 pounds. Sigmon defeated Trey Myers, 2-0, and Steve Bosak, 9-4, to advance to the quarterfinals. Luke, who is ranked No.
1 in the nation at 174 pounds, won by technical fall in the quarterfinals for Sigmon's first loss.
Chris Bencivenga started his day by recording a 10-1 major decision against Ben Lockett from San Francisco State. In the next round he was pinned by Corey Jantzen from Harvard at the 5:19 mark of the match.
Chris Bullins, ranked No. 18 at 165 pounds, won his first match, 10-3, over Dustin Noack from Cal Davis. He narrowly lost in the round of 16, 5-2, to Tyler Sherfey from Bosie State.
Andrew Saunders began his day with an impressive win in the first round. He recorded an 18-0 technical fall over Tanner LaValliere from Dakota Wesleyan. In the round of 16 he lost, 10-2, to Chase Pami from Cal Poly who is ranked No. 16 at 157 pounds in the latest rankings.
Ryan Sughrue and Joe Sheffield each finished their day after wrestling two matches each. Sughrue dropped a 15-1 decision to Tim Hawkins from Cal State-Fullerton before falling to Wesley Bergman from Ohio State, 6-0. Joe Sheffield ran into a powerful opponent in his first round match as he was paired against Kyle Massey from Wisconsin, who is ranked No. 3 in the nation. He lost 11-2 to Massey before losing 10-3 to Robbie Shaw from Montana State.
Wrestling will resume at 9 a.m. Saturday morning with the third round of the consolation bracket and will run until roughly 7 p.m. after the conclusion of the championship finals.
AGATE
141 Pounds:
Chris Bencivenga (UNCG) maj. dec. Ben Lockett (San Francisco State), 10-1 Corey Jantzen (Harvard) fall Chris Bencivenga (UNCG), 5:19
157 Pounds:
Andrew Saunders (UNCG) tech. fall Tanner LaValliere (Dakota Wesleyan), 18-0 Chase Pami (Cal Poly) maj. dec. Andrew Saunders (UNCG), 10-2
165 Pounds:
Chris Bullins (UNCG) dec. Dustin Noack (Cal Davis), 10-3 Tyler Sherfey (Boise State) dec. Chris Bullins (UNCG), 5-2
174 Pounds:
Byron Sigmon (UNCG) dec. Trey Myers (Cumberland), 2-0 Byron Sigmon (UNCG) dec. Steve Bosak (Cornell), 9-4 Steve Luke (Michigan) tech. fall Byron Sigmon (UNCG), 18-2 QUARTERFINAL/No. 1 in nation
184 Pounds:
Tim Hawkins (Cal St. Fullerton) maj. dec. Ryan Sughrue (UNCG), 15-1 Wesley Bergman (Ohio State) dec. Ryan Sughrue (UNCG), 6-0
285 Pounds:
Kyle Massey (Wisconsin) maj. dec. Joe Sheffield (UNCG), 11-2 Robbie Shaw (Montana State) dec. Joe Sheffield (UNCG), 10-3
Day 2 (Dec. 6)
LAS VEGAS, NV ? UNC Greensboro wrapped up their stay at the 27th Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational on Saturday afternoon at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Chris Bencivenga began his day by defeating Grant Overcashier, 11-5, from Brown in the consolation bracket. He was eliminated from the tournament after losing a 14-4 major decision to Casey Thome from Army.
Andrew Saunders day was finished early after dropping a tight, 5-1, decision to Aaron Hynes from Michigan. After advancing to the quarterfinals, Byron Sigmon's run came to an end by losing, 8-1, to New Mexico's Jesse Feinsad. Chris Bullins was eliminated from the tournament after defaulting to Ethan Headlee from Pittsburgh.
The Spartans will now have 23 days off before hosting the Southern Scuffle tournament on December 29 and 30. 28 teams from around the nation will compete at the Greensboro Coliseum in this annual event.
AGATE
141 Pounds:
Chris Bencivenga (UNCG) dec. Grant Overcashier (Brown), 11-5 Casey Thome (Army) maj. dec. Chris Bencivenga (UNCG), 14-4
157 Pounds:
Aaron Hynes (Michigan) dec. Andrew Saunders (UNCG), 5-1
165 Pounds:
Ethan Headlee (Pittsburgh) def. Chris Bullins (UNCG), default
174 Pounds:
Jesse Feinsad (New Mexico) dec. Byron Sigmon (UNCG), 8-1
Ohio 22, Appalachian State 9
BOONE, N.C. - Appalachian State (3-5) won the first match of the day but Ohio (4-2-1) won the next five in a row for a 22-9 win in Varsity Gym Sunday afternoon.
Andrew Sifakis got the match started in the right direction for the Mountaineers as he jumped out to an 5-0 lead on Tim Silvers. Silvers got a takedown with 1:20 left in the third period but Sifakis was able to stave off any more harm and hung on for the 5-3 win.
Ohio took command of the match winning the next five matches and winning four by three points or less. In three of the matches, ASU scored the first points. At 133, Frank Celorrio got in an 8-2 hole after scoring the first takedown of the match, but got two takedowns and an escape to pull to within 9-7, but could not pull off a final takedown.
Mike Kessler scored the fist points at 141, but Seth Morton got a takedown in the second and third periods for a 5-2 win. At 157, Brett Houghton also scored the first points of the match, but was unable to score the rest of the match as he lost an 11-2 major dec. to Clay Tucker.
At 165, Tommy Weinkam scored a takedown 2:10 into the match and a three-point near fall for a 5-0 first period lead on Kyle Blevins. Blevins scored a reversal with six second left to make the score 5-2 at the end of the first period. After a scoreless period, Blevins earned an escape and takedown in the final period, but Weinkam held a riding time advantage for the 6-5 win.
In a match up of two top-20 wrestlers at 174, Austin Trotman and Jacob Ison wrestled a scoreless first period. Starting at the bottom in the second period, Trotman turned a reversal just six seconds in, but Ison was able to escape quickly. Ison started the final period on the bottom and earned an escape to tie the score at two. With 30 seconds left in the match, Trotman took Ison down and scored a three-point near fall at the end of the period for a 7-2 win. The win was Trotman's fifth in a row and moves him to 11-1 on the season and the first loss of the season for Ison who drops to 8-1.
Dylan Temple got a second straight ASU win when he defeated Nick Purdue at 184. Temple got a takedown at 2:01 in the first period, but Purdue scored a reversal a minute later, but Temple reversed right back to take a 4-2 advantage into the second period. Temple extended his riding time advantage to 3:21 throughout the second period and earned an escape and takedown in the final period to earn the 7-2 decision.
After scoreless first and second periods, Dylan Wrage scored a takedown and escape in the final period to grab a 4-0 win over David Pritz at 197.
Dustin Heiser and Andy Hartshorn each earned an escape in regulation, but Hartshorn earned an escape in overtime to win 2-1 at 285.
Appalachian travels to Nevada for the Reno Tournament of Champions on Dec. 18 and follows that up with the Southern Scuffle on Dec. 29-30 in Greensboro, N.C.
Ohio (4-2-1) 22 ASU (3-5) 9
125 Andrew Sifakis (ASU) dec. Tim Silvers OU), 6-3- ASU 3-0
133 Quentin Keyes (OU) dec. Frank Celorrio (ASU), 9-7- 3-3 Tie
141 Seth Morton (OU) dec. Mike Kessler (ASU), 5-2- Ohio 6-3
149 Matt Reedy (OU) dec. Chip Powell (ASU), 6-4- Ohio 9-3
157 Clay Tucker (OU) major dec. Brett Houghton (ASU), 11-2- Ohio 13-3
165 Tommy Weinkam (OU) dec. Kyle Blevins (ASU), 6-5- Ohio 16-3
174 Austin Trotman (ASU) dec. Jacob Ison (OU), 7-2- Ohio 16-6
184 Dylan Temple (ASU) dec. Nick Purdue (OU), 8-2, Ohio 16-9
197 Dylan Wrage (OU) dec. David Pritz (ASU), 4-0- Ohio 19-9
285 Andy Hartshorn (OU) dec. Dustin Heiser (ASU), 2-1 OT- Ohio 22-9
The Citadel Competes at Penn State Open
State College, Pa. - The Citadel Bulldogs placed two at the annual Penn State Open Sunday, Dec. 4.
Bulldog wrestler, 125-lb. Richard Alarcon, placed fourth overall. The freshman went 3-2 in the tournament with one fall in 6:25 over Navy’s Allen Stein.
Another Bulldog to place was 149-pound Justin Sparrow. Sparrow had a 5-2 record in the tournament with one fall in 4:16, knocking off Lock Haven’s Brad Marquet. Sparrow then faced Cleveland State’s Dan Castillo, where he fell 2-1 before earning two straight victories. Sparrow fell to Brett Mccurdy from Penn 12-5, to end the tournament and finish sixth overall.
Other wrestlers with winning records included Derek Royster and Ivan Muller, who both went 3-2. Also competing were Odie Delaney and Derek Sickel, who both finished with a 2-2 record overall with two falls a piece.
Wrestling action will continue as the Bulldogs travel to Reno, Nev. to compete in the Reno Tournament of Champions Thursday, Dec. 15. The Citadel wrestlers will then take Christmas off before traveling to the Southern Scuffle Dec. 29 in Greensboro, N.C.