Rutgers has strong showing at Big Ten Championships
There were a couple ways to look at the showing for Rutgers’ top wrestlers at the Big Ten Championships over the weekend at Penn State.
While standout 141-pounder Sebastian Rivera was disappointed he was unable to win a third straight Big Ten title and had to settle for third, the fact the Scarlet Knights also got thirds from two other wrestlers (Mike VanBrill and John Poznanski) came as a very pleasant and impressive surprise.
Especially the third-place turned in by 149-pounder VanBrill, who entered the tournament as the No. 8 seed and lost his first bout of the tournament.
Not to be deterred, VanBrill roared back with four straight victories and in his third-place match posted a 2-1 overtime decision over Michael Blockhus of Minnesota.
VanBrill is a senior who had an outstanding high school career at Clearview.
An outstanding freshman out of Colonia High, Poznanski came into the tournament on a roll and as the No. 5 seed at 184 pounds.
In his semifinal he lost to eventual champion Aaron Brooks of Penn State, 102, but shook it off with two wins Sunday. The last victory was a 4-2 decision over Iowa’s Nelson Brands and with his third place, Poznanski should pick up a pretty good seed for nationals.
After dropping a tough overtime decision to Penn State’s Nick Lee in the semifinals, Rivera also rebounded with two wins in wrestlebacks. The first was by technical fall as the Rutgers senior really opened up to score 22 points. Rivera then beat Nebraska’s Chad Red, 4-3.
All three Rutgers wrestlers who reached the consolation finals, of course, advanced to the NCAA Championships, which will take place in less than two weeks in St. Louis.
How many teammates will join them remains to be seen.
The way it works is the top eight in each weight class automatically advanced to nationals. The tournament also has a special bracket for ninth place and the winner of those bouts also receive berths to the NCAA.
Finishing ninth for the Scarlet Knights and earning a trip to nationals was sophomore 174-pounder Jackson Turley, who came into the lineup midway through the season and was a four-time scholastic state champion in Virginia.
Also in contention for NCAA at-large berths from Rutgers are 133-pounder Sammy Alvarez and 157-pound Robert Kanniard.
Alvarez is ranked sixth in the country and withdrew from the tournament for undisclosed reasons. Kanniard is also nationally ranked and missed the tournament because he is under coronavirus protocol.
When you’re looking for a reason why The College of New Jersey opened the conference playoffs in a winning way, look no further than an offensive rebound.
It was a Danny Bodine offensive rebound at the 1:20 mark of the first half that got the Lions back in the right direction.
The carom detonated a scoring blitz that sealed a 77-64 win for TCNJ over Kean in the quarterfinals of the New Jersey Athletic
Conference tournament played Sunday at TCNJ’s Packer Hall.
The top-seeded Lions (7-0) will now advance to the semifinals where they will host No. 5 Stockton, which advanced with an upset of No. 4 Rutgers-Newark, 67-45. Kean (1-6) was the seventh seed.
Besides celebrating a victory, TCNJ recognized its three seniors: Travis Jocelyn, P.J. Ringel and Brandon Slaybaugh.
TCNJ’s final two regular season games were postponed and due to Covid protocols the team was shut down for two weeks, so game day was the first they were able to get together.
“I had not seen this team since we got off the bus two weeks ago,’’ said TCNJ coach Matt Goldsmith. “We had not practiced or seen each other in person and our first time in the gym was this morning. So, I was extremely proud of how we played and what the guys have done on their own.’’
The Lions saw a nine-point lead (14-5) fade away late in the first half as the No. 7 Cougars grabbed a 32-31 lead with 1:33 left in the half.
Jocelyn’s free throw tied it at 32-32 and when he missed the second charity toss, Bodine got the rebound and found Anthony DiCaro in the left corner. The sophomore buried the 3-pointer for a 35-32 TCNJ advantage.
It got to 40-32 by the half and TCNJ added seven straight points to start the second half. The 13-0 run turned tie game into a 45-32 security blanket for the Lions.
“Finishing off that half like that was huge,’’ said Goldsmith. “A lot of the attention this year has been on PJ (Ringel) and Travis (Jocelyn) and I’ve been impressed since day one by guys like Danny (Bodine), Anthony DiCaro and Jason Larranaga. Those guys are ready and these guys have been so important.’’
Kean never got within 10 points of the Lions after the run and it all started with an offensive rebound.
Jocelyn, a Player of the Year candidate, led the Lions with 18 points. Jason Larranaga chimed in with 17. DiCaro, who hit the trey that started it all, had a career-high 15 points. Ringel added 13.
Larranaga had a career-high nine rebounds. Ringel almost had a triple double as he followed his 13 points with nine rebounds and seven assists. Ringel leads the conference in assists.
The Cougars were led by J.D. Daniels and Abdullah Nieskins with 17 points each and Mike DelSantro added 11.
“I really liked the way we played defensively,’’ said Goldsmith. “We knew we’d get better as the game went along. A player like P.J. (Ringel) is having a great year and he has done everything we have asked.’’
Throughout the season the Lions have always gotten more than asked for.