Russo Reaches EIWA Championships Heavyweight Finals
Mar 06 | Wrestling
BETHLEHEM, Pa. (March 6, 2010) – Ninth-ranked heavyweight Dominick Russo (Netcong, N.J.) of the No. 22 Rutgers wrestling team earned a spot in the finals Saturday afternoon at the 106th EIWA Championships in Lehigh University’s Stabler Arena. As a team, the Scarlet Knights sit in seventh place with 72 points.
Second-seeded Russo will face top-seeded and second-ranked Zach Rey of host Lehigh in the finals on Sunday. Russo and Rey have battled twice this season, with Rey winning both bouts. Russo finished in fourth place last season.
Sunday’s two sessions feature consolations and placement matches beginning at 10 a.m. and the championship finals at 3 p.m. Tickets are available and can be purchased by calling 610-7LU-GAME or by visiting the arena box office.
Lehighsports.com will stream free wall-to-wall live video coverage of the final day of the event. Additionally, the EIWA Finals, slated to get underway at 3:05 p.m. on Sunday, will be televised live on Service Electric 2 Sports. The telecast will also be streamed live on Lehighsports.com.
Russo was one of three Scarlet Knights to reach the semifinals along with 24th-ranked 141-pound Trevor Melde (Hewitt, N.J.) and 20th-ranked157-pound Daryl Cocozzo (River Edge, N.J.).
Russo, Cocozzo and Melde are three of the eight Scarlet Knights that will compete on Sunday.
24th-ranked 197-pound Lamar Brown (Red Bank, N.J.), Cocozzo, 18th-ranked 125-pound Joseph Langel (Howell, N.J.), Melde and 29th-ranked 174-pound Daniel Rinaldi (Lodi, N.J.) will all be competing for third place of their respective brackets on Sunday.
149-pound David Greenwald (Union, N.J.) and 33rd-ranked 165-pound Greg Zannetti (Edison, N.J.) will battle in the seventh-place bout of their individual bracket on Sunday.
33rd-ranked 133-pound Billy Ashnault (South Plainfield, N.J.) and 184-pound Jesse Boyden (Kenilworth, N.J.) lost both of their matches on Sunday and are eliminated from the tournament.
“Tomorrow is big for the fact that these guys have to place as high as possible to help secure an NCAA bid,” said third-year Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale. “DJ secured his spot at NCAAs and is wrestling good right now. He is very familiar with Rey and I know he is really looking forward to facing him tomorrow.
“Our problem today was we couldn’t find a way to pull any upsets. We beat who we were expected to win against and lost to who we were expected to lose to. Obviously Billy and Jesse had disappointing days but that is the way this sport works sometimes.”
Russo cruised in his first match by pining seventh-seeded Joseph McMullan of Bucknell in 1:42. Russo punched his ticket to the finals by blanking third-seeded Scott Steele of Navy with a 4-0 decision in the semifinals.
Cocozzo, seeded fourth, entered the EIWA Championships with an 11-match win streak and 12-1 record in 2010. The RU newcomer pushed his victory streak to 12 by claiming an 8-2 decision over fifth-seeded Matt Dragon of Pennsylvania by a 7-4 mark.
In the semifinals, Cocozzo faced top-seeded and No. 2-ranked J.P. O’Conner of Harvard, the only wrestler to defeat Cocozzo in 2010 when he claimed a 3-2 victory at College Ave Gym on Jan. 8. O’Conner got the best of Cocozzo again as he won by a 6-3 decision to snap the Scarlet Knight’s streak.
Cocozzo will face seventh-seeded and 27th-ranked Brantley Hooks of Bucknell in the consolation semifinals on Sunday.
Third-seeded Melde earned a 6-1 decision over sixth-seeded John Regan of Bucknell in the quarterfinals before falling to seventh-seeded Jordan Lipp by a 6-3 score.
Melde will battle eighth-seeded Matt Pagan of Navy in the consolation semifinals on Sunday.
Brown, who is the seventh-seeded 197-pounder, dominated Franklin & Marshall’s Colin Ely by a 20-6 score in his preliminary match. Brown squared off with second-seeded and 14th-ranked Richard Starks in the quarterfinals where Starks earned a 7-2 decision.
In his first consolation match, Brown dominated Harvard’s Sean Murphy by a 15-6 score. Brown got a takedown in the final five seconds to defeat Brown’s Branden Stearns by a 6-4 decision in the quarterfinals to set a match with fifth-seeded Danial Mitchell of American in the consolation semifinals tomorrow.
Sixth-seeded Rinaldi won by technical fall (16-0, 3:09) over Brown’s Jack Roberts in his preliminary match. Rinaldi fell in his next match against third-seeded and 19th-ranked Shane Riccio of Bucknell by a 3-1 score.
Rinaldi claimed his second technical fall of the tournament in his opening consolation match against Phillip Barreiro of American. Rinaldi won a 16-1 score in a 6:20 time frame. The RU redshirt-freshman breezed past Columbia’s Stephen West with a 6-1 decision to push him into the consolation semifinals against fourth-seeded and 12th-ranked Robert Hamlin of Lehigh.
Second-seeded Langel opened up his first EIWA Championship with an 8-5 win over Lance Penhale of Army. In the quarterfinals, Langel was pinned for only the second time this season as seventh-seeded Garrett Frey took him down in 2:12.
Langel retaliated by defeating eighth-seeded and 24th-ranked Kyle Gilchrist by a 3-2 mark in his first consolation bout. Following an 11-7 victory over sixth-seeded Mark Rappo of Pennsylvania, Langel will now battle fourth-seeded and 33rd-ranked Aaron Kalil of Navy in the consolation semifinals.
In the 165-bracket, seventh-seeded Zannetti earned a 10-5 decision over Franklin & Marshall’s Anthony Bongarzone before falling to second-seeded and 10th-ranked Justin Kerber of Cornell by a 19-6 score.
Zannetti earned a 3-1 win over Army’s Christopher Marchetti in his opening consolation match. Zannetti faced his second ranked wrestler of the day in his next match but fell to sixth-seeded and 27th-ranked Robby Neill of Navy by a 10-3 decision.
Zannetti will take on eighth-seeded Jeffrey Lemmer of Brown in the seventh-place match on Sunday.
Greenwald had a touch challenge in his opening tournament match as he was sent to the consolation bracket with a 6-2 loss against second-seeded and 10th-ranked Kyle Borshoff of American.
Greenwald quickly rebounded by earning Rutgers’ fastest pin of the season with by taking down eighth-seeded Daniel Kolodzik of Princeton in 36 seconds. Greenwald was pinned in his next match against Columbia’s Steve Santos in a 3:56 time span.
Greenwald will wrestle sixth-seeded and 21st-ranked Hicks Manson of Cornell for seventh place on Sunday.
The EIWA received 41 automatic bids to the NCAA tournament when the NCAA announced its qualifier allocations last week. Each qualifying tournament was awarded spots per weight class based on current year data including Division I winning percentage, RPI and a coaches ranking. Under the new system, the number of automatic qualifiers varies in each weight class within the EIWA. Wrestlers who fail to qualify this weekend will be eligible for one of 46 at-large berths which will be announced on Wednesday, March 10. BRACKET
Team Standings after Day 1
Standing Points Team
1 124 Cornell
2 92.5 Lehigh
2 92.5 Pennsylvania
4 81.5 Bucknell
5 75 American
6 73.5 Navy
7 72 Rutgers
8 58.5 Columbia
9 54.5 Army
10 43.5 Brown
11 42.5 Harvard
12 23 Princeton
13 2 Franklin & Marshall
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