AUBURN HILLS, MICHIGAN—Rider University junior 141 Don Fisch (Williamstown, N.J./Delsea) won his first two matches Thursday to reach the quarterfinals at the 2007 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in the Palace of Auburn Hills. “Obviously I’m very pleased with the way Donnie is wrestling,” said Rider head coach Gary Taylor, “beating two seeded wrestlers.”

Six Rider Broncs advanced to Nationals, and three are still competing. “This is the National tournament, with ups and downs and everything in between,” Taylor said. 

In the first round Thursday morning, Fisch upset the fifth seed, Dominick Moyer  of Nebraska, 7-4, and then defeated the 12th seed, Cassio Perro of Illinois, 7-5. “He beat two great wrestlers from two major programs,’ Taylor said.  “The kid from Illinois is a returning All-American.”

In the quarterfinals, Fisch will face the fourth seed, Manuel Rivera of Minnesota Friday morning. “I’ve said all year that Donnie has the talent to win a national title,” Taylor said. “I never changed my thinking just because he struggled parts of this year. He showed he has the talent by beating the quality of wrestlers he just beat.”

Senior 157 Nate Galloway (State College, Pa.) pinned Jacob Murphy of Purdue in 1:11 in the first round, before losing 5-2 to the second seed, Brian Stith of Arizona State. Galloway will compete in the consolations Friday morning. “Nate did a nice job,” Taylor said. “He got that pin right off the bat and the second match was a lot closer than the score indicated. Stith was the national runner-up last year.”

Junior 197 T. J. Morrison (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cedar Cliff) lost 3-1 to the fifth seed, Jerry Rinaldi of Cornell. In the consolations Morrison defeated Sam Wendland of Wyoming 3-2 and will now face Patrick Bond of Illinois Friday morning. “T. J. beat a tough kid,” Taylor said. 

Sophomore 174 Doug Umbehauer (Shamong, N.J./Lenape) lost 7-4 to the ninth seed, Matthew Palmer of Columbia. In the consolations, Umbehauer lost 9-4 to the eighth seed, Matthew Stolpinski of Navy. “Obviously Doug did not have the kind of tournament we had hoped for,” Taylor said.  “But he’ll learn from this. He should have two more trips to Nationals in his future.”

Sophomore 149 Mike Kessler (Randallstown, Md./Owings Mills) lost 6-1 to the fourth seed, Jordan Leen of Cornell in the first round. In the consolations Kessler lost 8-0 to Jake Patacsil of Purdue.

Freshman 184 Mike Miller (Wilmington, Del./Brandywine) lost 17-2 in the first round to the tenth seed, Louis Caputo of Harvard. In the consolations, Miller lost 11-3 to Marc Bennett of Indiana.

“All six of our guys competed hard today,” Taylor said, “and I’m very pleased with that.”

Competition continues Friday morning.

-RU-