December 30, 2005 - 26th at Southern Scuffle
December 30, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Wrestling
Rider 26th at Southern Scuffle
Fisch 7th
GREENSBORO, NC—The Broncs placed 26th of 32 teams at the Southern Scuffle, hosted by the University of North Carolina-Greensboro. “This was a very tough tournament and a lot of learning went on,” said Rider head coach Gary Taylor.
The Broncs did not compete in every weight class and Rider’s best performance did not even count in the team standings, as junior Don Fisch (Williamstown/Delsea Regional), who is red-shirting this season, wrestled unattached and placed seventh.
“When you aren’t represented in every weight class, and you don’t have all of your best wrestlers competing for you, you can’t expect to compete for a title against teams like Missouri, Cornell and Minnesota,” said Taylor. Missouri, Cornell and Minnesota are all top 10 teams. “But for the most part we were pretty competitive across the board. This was a good experience. Some of our guys learned that they are very close to the top guys in the nation, and they need to keep working to get even closer.”
Fisch won four of six bouts to place seventh. On Friday Fisch lost 5-4 in the quarter-finals to Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota. In the consolations, Fisch defeated Joey Ecklof of Pittsburgh 7-1, before losing 9-8 to Daniel Elliott of Gardner-Webb. Fisch was awarded seventh on a medical decision.
Freshman 174 Doug Umbehauer (Shamong, N.J./Lenape) reached the quarter-finals on Thursday before losing 10-3 Friday to Gabe Dretsch of Minnesota. In the consolations Umbehauer lost 8-7 to Jay Borschel of Virginia Tech. Umbehauer was 2-2 in the tournament.
Sophomore 197 T. J. Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) pinned Joel Caruso of George Mason in 2:23 on Friday before being pinned by Paul Weibel of Lehigh in the fifth round of consolations. Morrison was 3-2 in the tournament.
In the fifth round of consolations at 157, junior Ryan Cunningham (Cherry Hill, N.J./Cherry Hill West) lost 4-0 to Tommy Cunningham of VMI. Earlier on Friday Ryan Cunningham defeated Mitch Webster of George Mason 3-2, and was 4-2 in the tournament.
“Those three (Umbehauer, Morrison, Cunningham) reached the top 12 and needed to win one more and came close,” Taylor said. “All three were very competitive. Umbehauer was winning and got taken down late in the quarter-finals.”
In the fourth round of the 165 consolations, junior Joe Maroney (Bensalem, Pa/Bensalem) lost to Keith Smith of East Stroudsburg 10-2 Friday. Maroney was 3-2 in the tournament.
In the 149 consolations, freshman Mike Kessler (Randallstown, Md./Owings Mills) lost to Joey Ecklof of Pittsburgh 5-4, and was 3-2 in the tournament.
Rider wrestles again January 7 at Bloomsburg. “A tournament like this will help us put things together for January,” said Taylor. “A lot of good things can be taken from this, and be built on.”
-RU-
