Wrestling | 1/20/2018 5:31:00 PM
CORTLAND, NY – The RIT wrestling team placed fifth out of six teams at the 2018 Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference Championships, hosted by SUNY Cortland on Saturday afternoon. RIT finished with 104 team points, while Ithaca won the competition with 193.5 points over runner-up The College at Brockport.
Jonathan Haas of Brockport (125 lbs.) and James Bethel of Oneonta State (285 lbs.) were named co-Wrestlers of the Meet. The Tigers had 10 place winners, including
Kaidon Winters (Athens, PA/Athens Area), who was runner-up at 157 lbs., while
Connor Calkins (Almond, NY/Alfred-Almond) placed second at 285 lbs.
Winters went 2-1 on the afternoon to move to 31-7 on the season. He opened the day by defeating Sean O'Hagan of Brockport by fall in 6:28 and advanced to the championship match by defeating Greg Chery of Cortland via tiebreaker, 3-2. Winters fell to Austin Whitney in the championship match, 14-3.
Calkins also finished 2-1 at 285 lbs. He defeated Jacob Morris of Brockport, 15-0 in the quarterfinals and Austin Dean, 9-8 in the semifinals before falling to No. 4 James Bethel of Oneonta in the championship.
Joe Cutugno (Ventnor, NJ/Atlantic City) won three matches at 184 lbs. to place third overall, giving him 15 victories on the season. He earned a win over Lantze Lange of Oneonta in the quarterfinals before falling to Jake Ashcraft ion the semifinals. Cutugno rebounded by defeating Chris Marchena of Oswego by fall in the consolation semifinal and knocked off Jeff Lombardi, also of Oswego, 12-1 in the third place match.
Colby Hall (Deposit, NY/Deposit) was fourth at 165 lbs., winning by technical fall and fall in the consolation rounds.
Joe Lupisella (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) placed fifth at 174 lbs., while
Andrew Flanagan (Holley, NY/Holley) (125 lbs.),
Alex Prunoske (Safety Harbor, FL/Clearwater Catholic) (133 lbs.),
Won Kim (Millbrae, CA/Mills) (149 lbs.),
Adam Green (Dansville, NY/Dansville) (165 lbs.) and
Matt Cicco (Wheatfield, NY/Niagara-Wheatfield) (197 lbs.) earned sixth place finishes. Hall, Flanagan, Prunoske and Lupisella all won two matches apiece.
Matt Cicco (Wheatfield, NY/Niagara-Wheatfield) (197 lbs.),
Joey Monteleone (East Syracuse, NY/East Syracuse-Minoa) (197 lbs.) and
Wyatt Morris (Eaton, NY/Morrisville-Eaton) (285 lbs.) also picked up a win for the Tigers in the competition.
RIT returns to action on Sunday, Jan. 28 at the John Reese Duals hosted by Wilkes University.
