Local wrestlers have strong starts at NCAA Championships
TULSA, OK. >> There are three wrestlers at New Jersey colleges who are hoping to make a big impact at this year's NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships, and all of them got off to a successful start on Thursday afternoon.
Winning their openers in the opening round were Princeton's Patrick Glory (125) and Quincy Monday (165) as well as Rider 197-pounder Ethan Laird.
Those three were to have returned to action Thursday night in the pre-quartefinals along with opening round losers in the wrestlebacks.
Second at this tournament a year ago and the No. 2 seed, Glory remained undefeated on the year at 21-0 when he pinned Reece Witcraft of Oklahoma State in a fast :32 with a cradle.
Many of the experts predict the Princeton senior will return to the finals, and should he get there he will in all probability run into Iowa's Spencer Lee, who is shooting for a fourth national championship.
Monday also made the finals last year but went into this tournament as the No. 5 seed. He cruised in his opener with a 12-4 major decision over Andrew Sparks of Minnesota in a match in which the Tiger senior dominated on his feet. Monday is now 23-2.
As for Rider's Laird, he came out strong with a comfortable 10-5 win over Trey Rogers of Hofstra. Laird is now 26-1 and one of his wins on the year came at Trenton's CURE Insurance Arena where he beat top-seeded and defending
national champion Max Dean of Penn State in overtime.
In other results for Princeton out of the opening round, Luke Stout lost his opener at 197 and heavyweight Travis Stefanik dropped a 4-1 decision to Minnesota's Garrett Joles in the pigtail round.
Additional results for Rider included McKenzie Bell (16-9 at 141) and Quinn Kinner (24-8 at 149) both losing their opening-round bouts.
Rutgers, which beat Rider and Princeton in dual match action this year, has seven wrestlers at the tournament. Its only winner in the opening-round was High Point's threetime state champion Brian Soldano at 184 pounds. Soldano pinned Layne Malczewski of Michigan State in the first period to advance against North Carolina State's second seeded Trent Hidlay.
Losing in the opening round for Rutgers were Dean Peterson (125), Joe Heilmann (133), Anthony White (149), Andrew Clark (157), Jackson Turley (174) and heavyweight Boone McDermott.
Peterson and Turley both dropped tough decisions.
Peterson fell by the score of 4-3 to Jarrett Trombley of North Carolina State. Peterson was awarded with what would have been a winning takedown in overtime, but it was waved off. After Rutgers protested by throwing in the brick, the call against Peterson was upheld.
Turley, who put together a strong tournament last year, was defeated by Virginia Tech's Mekhi Lewis by the score of 2-1. This is a very respectable loss when you consider Lewis, a state champion for Bound Brook in his scholastic days, has already won a national title.