Wrestling | 12/1/2018 6:29:00 PM
ROCHESTER, NY – The RIT wrestling team finished third overall out of 16 teams at the 53rd Annual RIT Wrestling Invitational, held at the Gordon Field House on Saturday, Dec. 1. RIT earned 131.5 team points, while tournament champion Worcester Polytechnic Institute won with 139.5 points. RIT's
Kaidon Winters (Athens, PA/Athens Area) won the 157 lbs. competition and was named the Tony Wallace Award Winner as the Most Outstanding Wrestler.
After a first round bye, Winters defeated Cody Lewis of Norwich with a fall at 2:54. He picked up his second straight win by fall with a win over Daniel Novak of John Caroll at 4:09. Winters won a 3-2 decision over Grant Sorensen in the semifinals, and took down Tyler Marsh of WPI with a 5-0 win in the championship bout. He improves to 11-0 this season with seven pins.
Chris Horton (Athens, PA/Athens Area) finished as the runner-up at 133 lbs. He opened the with win by fall at 4:25 over Christian Curli of WPI. He defeted Dietrich Hartman from Williams in the second round by fall at 0:53. Horton took down Duncan Clayton from Case Western Reserve with a 16-0 technical fall. He advanced to the title match with an 11-5 win over Andrew Ellis from WPI in the semifinals where he lost by fall at 2:42 to Andrew Desousa from SUNY Oneonta.
Zach Stedeford (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) was runner-up at 149 lbs, defeating Norwich's Tyler Barker 10-7 in his opening match. He held on to beat Shane Ross from Wesleyan with a 2-0 decision in the second round. Stedeford advanced to the championship bout with 14-3 major decision over Tyler Brazinski of SUNY Oneonta. Stedeford lost 7-4 to Rocco Russo in the title bout.
Joe Cutugno (Ventnor, NJ/Atlantic City) finished 4-1 on the day to place second at 184 lbs. to earn 19 team points for RIT. He opened the day by defeating Dan Askman of WPI, 12-4, before earning back-to-back wins by fall to advance to the semifinal. In the semifinal, Cutugno defeated Jimmy Suhadya of John Carroll, 4-1. In the final, he battled Dan Wensley of WPI to overtime, before suffering the defeat.
Connor Calkins (Almond, NY/Alfred-Almond) was the runner-up at 285 lbs. After a first round bye, Calkins took out Jake Pine (SUNY Oneonta) with a 17-0 technical fall in the second round. He defeated John Stasek (John Carroll) with a 15-0 technical fall in the third round. In the semifinals, Calkins defeated Austin Shrewsbury of WPI with a fall at 1:44 before losing by a 17-0 technical fall in the title match versus James bethel of SUNY Oneonta.
"I was very proud of our team as a whole," said RIT wrestling coach
Jason Bovenzi. "Each wrestler competed hard and represented the program well. What was equally encouraging was the way they supported each other. Despite some setbacks, we were in position to win the whole tournament right up until the end in what was the most competitive field we have seen at RIT in quite some time."
Other top finishers for RIT included
Isaiah Ocasio (Vineland, NJ/Vineland) who placed fourth at 141 lbs.,
Dempsey King (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford), who garnered a fourth place finish at 157 lbs.,
Chris Dean (Long Branch, NJ/Long Branch), who placed sixth at 125 lbs., and
Sam Weinger (Blooming Grove, NY/Washingtonville) who placed sixth at 197 lbs. After losing his opening round bout, Ocasio went 5-1 the remainder of the day including an 8-5 decision over Colby Bronzburg in the consolation semifinal. Dean won four matches, including two major decisions, while King recorded three wins and Weinger picked up a pair of wins Saturday.
Overall, RIT won 55 bouts, including three by fall.
Shane Thompson (Newtown, PA/Council Rock) (141 lbs.),
Ian Houck (Cottekill, NY/Rondout Valley) (157 lbs.),
John Donohue (Smithtown, NY/Hauppauge) (165 lbs.),
Morgan Seller (Lyons Falls, NY/South Lewis) (174 lbs.) and
Owen Albanese (Canastota, NY/Canastota) (285 lbs.) tallied at least two wins on the day.
The Tigers wrap up the fall semester with a home match against The College at Brockport on Thursday, Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at Clark Gym.
