Rutgers Wrestling Opens Home Season by Hosting Brown, Harvard
Jan 06 | Wrestling
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (Jan. 6, 2010) – The Rutgers wrestling team will open the 2009-10 home schedule this Friday when it hosts Brown and Harvard at the College Ave Gymnasium. The Scarlet Knights will battle the Bears at 5 p.m. and the Crimson at 7 p.m.
Franklin and Marshall will be in action as well, as they face Harvard at 5 p.m. and Brown at 7 p.m.
Rutgers (5-4, 0-1 EIWA) last competed in dual action at then No.24 Pittsburgh on Dec. 12, when they fell by a 21-18 score. Rutgers leads the EIWA in pins with 54 highlighted by heavyweight redshirt junior Dominick Russo’s (Netcong, N.J.) conference best 11 falls.
The Crimson is 1-2 on the season with losses to Penn State and Northern Iowa and a victory over Sacred Heart. Brown has yet to compete in dual competition this season. Franklin and Marshall is 0-2 this season as it dropped matches against Princeton and New York University.
“We are excited to be home for the first time,” said Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale. “We were on the road the whole first semester and traveled to a lot of places. It will be nice to be at The Barn for a change.”
Rutgers is tied in the all-time series with Brown with a 10-10 record. The Scarlet Knights have won the two meetings against the Bears since Goodale took the helm. Last season, RU won at Harvard by a 21-12 score. Rutgers owns a commanding 15-4 record over Harvard but the two squads have not faced since Feb. 2, 1997, when RU won by a 25-16 mark
Three Scarlet Knights enter Friday’s competition listed in InterMat national rankings. Heavyweight Russo highlights RU’s presence in the rankings with a No. 10 listing. Russo finished the fall season tied with a team-best 14 wins, including four against ranked opponents.
Junior Billy Ashnault (South Plainfield, N.J.) is listed at No. 16 in the national rankings. The RU newcomer finished his first semester as a Scarlet Knight tied with Russo for the most wins with a 14-5 record and seven pin falls.
18th-ranked 197-pounder Lamar Brown (Red Bank, N.J.) owns a 13-3 record and two major decision victories.
Redshirt junior Daryl Cocozzo (River Edge, N.J.) will compete in dual action as a Scarlet Knight for the first time as he wrestled unattached in the fall due to NCAA transfer regulations. The 157-pounder compiled a 12-7 record during the fall and placed fourth at the Nittany Lion Open on Dec. 5.
“Daryl is a proven winner and has won at every level,” said Goodale. “He has competed against some of the best wrestlers in the country. He is right there with the best guys. He needs to get over the hump and win a big match. He certainly brings experience and great work ethic to our lineup.”
Cocozzo will have his hands full on Friday night as he is expected to face the No. 1-ranked 157-pound wrestler J.P. O'Connor from Harvard. The two squared off earlier this season at the Brockport/Oklahoma Gold Wrestling Tournament with O’Connor winning by a 3-1 score.
Along with O’Connor, Harvard has another top-10 wrestler in 184-pounder Louis Caputo, who is listed at No. 10 by InterMat.
Rutgers will have a quick turnaround after Friday’s competition as the squad will travel to West Point, N.Y. on Sunday for a quad-meet with Army, Boston University and USSMA.
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