March 17, 2007 - All-American Fisch Places Fifth / Rider places 30th
March 17, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
College Wrestling
Rider at NCAA Championships
All-American Fisch Places Fifth
AUBURN HILLS, MICHIGAN—Rider University junior Don Fisch (Williamstown, N.J./Delsea) placed fifth in the nation in the 141 pound weight class Saturday morning at the 2007 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in the Palace of Auburn Hills. “Donnie had a wonderful tournament and I’m very proud of him. He became a real fan favorite here after last night and the entire arena was pulling for him today,” said Rider head coach Gary Taylor. As a team, Rider placed 30th overall.
Fisch pinned the seventh seed, Brandon Rader of West Virginia in 3:42 in the battle for fifth place. “Rader was a defending All-American,” Taylor said.
“I had a pretty good tournament,” said Fisch, who became the 12th Bronc wrestler to earn All-America honors. “The rest of the year was really practice for this tournament, and I guess wrestling against these great wrestlers brought out the best in me. I kept getting better all year. I knew I could wrestle and compete with the top guys.”
“This is what it’s all about,” Taylor said. “To be an All-American in wrestling is not a voting situation, you have to do it on the mat. Donnie beat the kid from Nebraska, he beat the kid from West Virginia, he beat the kid from Minnesota. He’s beating kids from the top programs in the country, and that is what you have to do to earn what he has earned. I’m very proud of the way he represented Rider University.”
Unseeded in the tournament, Fisch won his first three matches over the fifth, 12th and fourth seeds, before losing a controversial 3-2 decision to the top seed in the semi-finals Friday night. “Everybody is still upset about last night,” Taylor said. “That’s the talk of this tournament. I can’t tell you how many comments we’ve heard about how Donnie Fisch should be in the finals. We had national champs come up to us and tell us that they felt really bad for him because he out-wrestled the number one seed.”
“I was a little upset about that,” Fisch said, “but I guess it was my fault. I shouldn’t have lost that match. I was surprised at the call. I didn’t think it was the right call.”
On Saturday Fisch lost 6-5 on a stalling call to All-American Charles Griffin of Hofstra, who went on to place third, before pinning Rader. “That was a tough match,” Taylor said. “Griffin is very tough. He was a high school National Champion and one of the best kids in the country. We thought Donnie had Griffin pinned in the first period. Donnie was called for stalling with just three seconds left, and that’s a tough way to loss a match.”
Fisch went 4-2 at Nationals and finished the season with a record of 32-11. “When I beat the kid from Minnesota and I knew I was an All-American, that was the highlight of the tournament for me,” Fisch said.
Junior 197 T. J. Morrison (Mechanicsburg, PA/Cedar Cliff) defeated Patrick Bond of Illinois 2-1 in overtime Friday afternoon in the consolations before being pinned in 2:35 by the tenth seed, Wynn Michalak of Central Michigan. Morrison went 2-2 at Nationals to finish the season 31-11. On Thursday Morrison lost 3-1 to the fifth seed, Jerry Rinaldi of Cornell. In the consolations Morrison defeated Sam Wendland of Wyoming 3-2.
Senior 157 Nate Galloway (State College, Pa.) lost by fall (9:44) in double overtime sudden victory to the 12th seed, Matt Hill of Edinboro in the consolations Friday morning. Galloway 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 went 1-2 at Nationals and finished the season 11-6.
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. Umbehauer finished the season with a record of 28-12. “Both people that Doug lost to went on to earn All-America,” Taylor said. “He had a great year and lost to two tough kids.”
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. Kessler finished the season 21-13.
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. Miller finished his rookie season 24-15.
“I’m very proud of all the guys out here,” Taylor said. “They all wrestled very hard, and that is all you can ask. For some of them, this was a learning process, learning what they need to do to have success out here.”
-RU-
