Rutgers Wrestling places Five at Wilkes Open
Dec 28 | Wrestling
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (December 28, 2010) - The Rutgers wrestling team saw five individuals place at the 2010 Wilkes Open this evening in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. The Scarlet Knights were led by Jordan Beverly (Point Pleasant, N.J.) and Greg Zannetti (Edison, N.J.) who won their respective weight classes.
In addition to winning his bracket at 149, Beverly also scored the most points in the tournament to earn the Marv Antinnes Most Points Award and was named the John G. Reese Outstanding Wrestler. Beverly cruised to the finals in the bracket recording first period pin falls in his first four matches with the quickest coming a mere 41 seconds into his match with Kyle Hinton of Wilkes. In the finals, Beverly matched up with Bryan Smith of Bloomsburg and cruised to an easy 9-4 decision to claim the title.
Zannetti also encountered little difficulty on his way the finals at 174 pounds. Zannetti recorded a major decision and a fall before using an injury default from Pitt-Johnstown's Steve Makin to reach the finals. In the championship match Zannetti rolled to a 12-5 victory by decision over Matt Fullowan of Franklin & Marshall.
In addition to the success had by Beverly and Zannetti, a trio of Scarlet Knights-Mike Demarco (Lyndhurst, N.J.), Anthony Volpe (Miller Place, N.Y.) and Brendan Ard (Watchung, N.J.)-finished in third in their brackets.
After narrowly losing his first match at 133 pounds, 5-4, to eventual champion Ryan Link of Pitt-Johnstown, Demarco rallied to win his next five matches cruising to a third place finish by picking up a 16-2 major decision over Kekura Musa in the third place bout.
Volpe finished third at 165 by picking up a 6-3 decision over Zachary Lundgren of Pitt-Johnstown in the third place bout. Prior to his match with Lundgren, Volpe had recorded a trio of victories, one by fall and two by decision, before a 3-1 loss to Tanner Shaffer of American in the semis.
Similar to Demarco, Ard also rallied from an opening match loss to finish third. In the 174-pound bracket, Ard lost his opener to eventual runner-up Matt Fullowan of Franklin & Marshall and then ran off a string of victories to advance to the third place match against Shane Smith of Millersville. In his match with Smith, Ard controlled throughout and went on to take an 8-3 decision.
The Scarlet Knights are in action again tomorrow when they wrestle at the 48th Midlands Championships in Evanston, Ill. starting at 9:30 a.m. CT. RESULTS
RU Wrestlers Placing at the Wilkes Open
133: Mike Demarco (3rd)
149: Jordan Beverly (1st)
165: Anthony Volpe (3rd)
174: Greg Zannetti (1st), Brendan Ard (3rd)
