Rutgers Wrestling Coach Goodale Recaps Historic 2009-10 Season
May 25 | Wrestling
PISCATAWAY, N.J. (May 25, 2010) – The Rutgers wrestling team put together an historic season in 2009-10.
The Scarlet Knights finished at No. 22 in the final 2009-10 NWCA/USA Today Division I Team Coaches Poll after posting a 19-5-1 record. The No. 22 ranking is the highest in the program’s history.
Third-year Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale was proud of what is squad accomplished, but has even bigger aspirations for the future.
“It was a productive season,” said Goodale. “I wouldn’t say it was a great season because our goals are to get All-Americans and national championships, which is a hard thing to do. It was a step in the right direction for 2010-11. We had seven national qualifiers and a tough schedule. It was a positive season.”
RU opened the season with a 43-0 shutout of Sacred Heart at the William H. Pitt Center, where five Scarlet Knights picked up pin fall victories.
The Scarlet Knights began to make their presence known on a national level at the prominent Oklahoma Gold Tournament where the squad placed third and junior heavyweight Dominick Russo (Netcong, N.J.) won his bracket’s title. RU’s strong showing at the event propelled six Scarlet Knights in national rankings, with Russo earning the highest billing at No. 10 by InterMat.
After starting the season 3-1, Rutgers faced eventual NCAA Champion Iowa and Bucknell on Nov. 27 in a tri-meet at Bucknell’s Sojka Pavillion. The Scarlet Knights fell to the Hawkeyes by a 33-9 score and the Bison by a 26-12 mark.
The Scarlet Knights bounced back from their stumble in Lewisburg, Pa. with two dominating victories against in-state EIWA rival Princeton and VMI at the Dillon Gymnasium on Dec. 5.
The turning point for Rutgers came at No. 24 Pittsburgh on Dec. 12. With Rutgers leading through the first nine matches by a 18-15 score, Pitt’s heavyweight Ryan Tomei pinned Russo to capture the win.
“We did a good job of fighting back, but unfortunately with only 10 weight classes you can’t get pinned at this level - it is too many bonus points,” said Goodale after the match. “It’s an unfortunate ending but it happens in wrestling.
“DJ Russo has won a lot of matches for us and a defensive pin is something you rarely see. I also look at other spots like 125 and 141. If you want to knock off nationally-ranked programs you have to win those matches, especially matches you are ahead. Hopefully our young guys will learn from this and move forward.”
The Scarlet Knights learned from the misstep at UP as they went the next 68 days without a defeat on their way to a school record 20-match unbeaten streak.
Rutgers closed out 2009 at the Midlands Championships where Russo and junior Billy Ashnault (South Plainfield, N.J.) each placed eighth in their respective brackets.
Goodale said spending the entire fall on the road helped bring the squad together and was a key ingredient into the team’s streak.
“I like traveling because it gets you on the road and away from all the distractions,” said Goodale. “It allowed the team to get closer and allowed us to really focus on wrestling.”
The winning streak began when Rutgers hosted Brown and Harvard in their season opener at the College Ave Gym. The Scarlet Knights dominated the Bears (35-8) and the Crimson (46-4) and won 14 of 20 matches, including five pin falls.
The home opener served as redshirt junior Daryl Cocozzo’s (River Edge, N.J.) first dual match as a Scarlet Knight and the newcomer impressed as he defeated Brown’s Bryan Tracy by a 6-1 score.
The Scarlet Knights cruised in their next four matches against Boston, USSMMA, Army and Eastern Michigan before finally being tested against Michigan State.
The Scarlet Knights tied the Spartans by a 16-16 score in a contest that Goodale though his squad let slip away.
“We had a good day but not a great day and we leave here with a bitter taste in our mouth because of the Michigan State match,” commented Goodale at the time. “We had a great opportunity but got upset at 197. We had other matches that could have gone better for us so it is disappointing.”
RU pushed its unbeaten streak to 10 before it hosted its biggest match of season when it welcomed No. 23 Virginia to the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
In front of 1,655 fans at the RAC, the Scarlet Knights topped the favored Cavaliers by a 25-12 mark. Senior, and 18th-ranked 197 pounder, Lamar Brown (Red Bank, N.J.) scored the match-clinching victory when he defeated 17th-ranked redshirt senior Brent Jones. The two fifth-year warriers battled back and forth and the match went to four overtimes before Brown captured the 14-8 record to seal the victory for RU.
“It was a great win for this school and our program,” said Goodale. “Wins like this and the environment is what I envisioned when I came here. It was exciting. The fans were great and the atmosphere is what college wrestling is about.”
RU captured another impressive win the next day at College Ave Gym by taking out Navy with a 23-10 score to push its unbeaten streak to a school-record 12 matches.
The unbeaten streak and the two convincing victories over Virginia and Navy propelled Rutgers to its highest ranking in school history at No. 23 the following week.
Rutgers claimed victories at Liberty and American and in its home season finale against Drexel to push its school-record unbeaten streak to 15 and jumped to No. 22 in the national rankings.
Rutgers closed out at the regular season at No. 7 Lehigh where, despite wrestling in several close matches, the Scarlet Knights fell 28-3 to snap its win streak.
“It is all part of what usually happens when you are trying to go from a good team to a great one,” said Goodale after the match. “You need to be able to win close matches to win big matches.”
The Scarlet Knights finished seventh at the EIWA Championships. Cocozzo, redshirt freshman Joseph Langel (Howell, N.J.) and Russo earned NCAA bids at the conference tournament. Russo placed second after falling to top-seed and second-ranked Zach Rey of Lehigh in the finals.
Rutgers historic season continued in the NCAA Tournament as four other Scarlet Knights earned bids to the big dance with at-large bids. 133-pound junior Billy Ashnault (South Plainfield, N.J.), 197-pound redshirt senior Brown, 141-pound sophomore Trevor Melde (Hewitt, N.J.) and174-pound redshirt sophomore Daniel Rinaldi (Lodi, N.J.) earned at-large bids. The seven NCAA participants were the most for the school since 1960.
Russo reached the farthest of the NCAA participants as he fell one win short of earning All-American status.
Goodale was pleased with how his team finished the season, but has raised the bar for next season.
“We have been getting better and better since we got here in 2008,” commented the third-year head coach. “We ended with a No. 22 ranking and we want to continue to see that climb. We want to be in the thick of it and wrestle with the best teams in the country. We wrestled with Iowa and Penn State last year but we want to be able to wrestle with them consistently.
“I think ultimately, our expectation is finish in the top 10. I know that is a high expectation but that is what we are gearing for. We have the guys to do it. This is the first time I will be coaching here with experienced wrestlers.”
