The Citadel finishes fourth at All-Academy Championships
LEXINGTON, Va. – Highlighted by senior Matt Frisch’s 100th career win, The Citadel wrestling team had seven placers in the 22nd annual All-Academy Championships on Saturday. As a team, The Citadel finished the tournament fourth.
In the first round of the day, six of the 10 wrestlers earned wins by fall to give The Citadel the lead in the overall team score. Despite losing first-round bouts at 165, 174 and 184, the Bulldogs still held a 17.5 team score after Marshall Haas pinned Taylor Thomas of VMI.
In the championship matches, Frisch was the first Bulldog to take the mat, against Jerry McGinty of Air Force, and took the 3-2 decision victory en route to a first-place finish. The senior now has 102 wins in his career and has taken top honors for the third consecutive year at the tournament. Frisch placed all four years of his career with the first-place finish Saturday.
Aaron Walker also took home first place at 157 pounds, edging Army’s Russell Parsons in an 8-3 tiebreaker win. With the three wins Saturday, Walker extended his win streak to 11 matches and picked up another pin to push his season total to six.
Joe Bexley and Marcus Malecek closed things down for the 2016 tournament, taking to the mat for the 285 bout. Malecek jumped out a 3-0 lead heading into the second period after tallying a two-point takedown and an escape. Air Force extended its lead to 6-2 in the third period and eventually took the victory over Bexley 9-3, giving the junior a second-place finish.
The Citadel had four wrestlers advance to third-place matches. Patrick Kearney went 2-2 on the day, picking up wins over Army by fall and Merchant Marine by tech fall before losing to Navy’s Brant Leadbeter by an 8-2 decision. Ty Bucksio also took home third place, with his only loss coming to Army’s Logan Everett by a tight 3-2 decision. Freshman Sawyer Root lost his first match of the day but bounced back to win three straight, including the third-place match. Root was able to pull out the 5-2 tiebreaker win to finish the day 3-1. Haas took fourth place after finishing 2-2 and earning wins over VMI and Merchant Marine before losing in the third-place match to Michael Woulfe of Navy.
The Citadel will continue its Southern Conference road swing with two duals in three days. First up for the Bulldogs is Gardner-Webb on Feb. 5 and then Davidson on Feb. 7.
VMI finishes fifth at All-Academy Championships
LEXINGTON, Va. – Hosting the 22nd Annual All-Academy Championships, the VMI wrestling team earned a fifth-place finish as four Keydets earned top-three placements Saturday at Cameron Hall.
Junior Dalton Henderson placed first in the 125-pound weight division, while freshmen Dominick Gallo (133), Neal Richards (157) and junior Shabaka Johns (165) placed third in their respective weight classes.
Army took first with 91 points, followed by Navy (88.5) and Air Force (86). The Keydets came in fifth overall with 60.5 points, more than doubling last year’s point total at the event.
Seeded second, Henderson made it to the championship round after topping Coast Guard’s Earl Roberts by a tech fall and The Citadel’s Charles Kearney by a fall in just 31 seconds. In the finals, he faced top-seeded Drew Romero of Air Force and came out with a 12-6 decision for the individual title. The win was Henderson’s first career tournament title and first VMI individual title since Juan Adams won the heavyweight title at last year’s event.
Gallo lost in the opening round to first-seeded and nationally ranked Josh Martinez of Air Force but rallied for three consecutive wins to place third. In the consolation bracket, he topped Norwich’s Chase Jefferys and followed with wins over Kimo Dial (Merchant Marine) and Army’s Austin Harry. He defeated Harry in the third-place match by a 7-2 decision.
Richards defeated Navy’s Drew Daniels twice en route to his third-place mark, defeating the Midshipman in the opening round and the third-place match. In the consolation bracket, he also topped Air Force’s Zach Stepan after losing to Army’s Russell Parsons in the semifinals.
With a No. 2 seed, Johns beat Coast Guard’s Mike Palomba in the first round before topping Navy’s John Keck by a 9-5 decision. In the championship match, he faced fourth-seeded Andrew Mendel of Army, who had advance after upsetting top seed Alex Lopouchanski in the semifinals. Johns fell by a close 7-6 decision in the finale.
The Keydets conclude the 2015-16 home season with a dual Wednesday night against Davidson. The Senior Night match will begin at 7 p.m. at Cormack Hall.