WESTMINISTER, MD. – The Ursinus College men's wrestling team cruised to a 26-16 victory over No.24 McDaniel College on Saturday afternoon.
With the win, the Bears improved to 7-3 overall and 2-0 in conference action, meanwhile the Green Terror fall to 6-8 on the season and 0-1 in Centennial Conference play.
"The team wrestled awesome today," Director of Wrestling
Joe Jamison said. "Any time you're able to beat a top 25 team on the road it's a good day. We were relentless the entire dual, looking for points in every situation and scored a lot of short-time takedowns again today. We scheduled back-to-back road matches this weekend on purpose to test these guys and they responded in a big way. I'm proud of these guys."
The Bears jumped out to a 10-0 advantage through three matches before the Green Terror stormed back to tie the match at 10 a piece midway through the dual.
Ursinus gained the early momentum as senior
Terry Adams defeated Alex DuFour via a 6-3 decision for an early 3-0 match lead. At 133lbs, junior
Jagger Clapsadle collected bonus points with an 18-4 major decision over McDaniel's Romeo Tsai. Clapsadle collected an early takedown with a pass-by to a single leg at the 1:49-mark of the first period. He quickly earned four near-fall points to extend his lead to six before a reversal gave him a four-point lead at the end of the first period. In the second period, he earned a quick escape and a single-leg takedown to make the score 9-2 through two periods. Clapsadle recorded another takedown, and multiple near falls in route to the victory.
The Bears extended their match led to 10 at 141lbs as senior
Romeo Rodriguez collected a 4-2 decision over McDaniel's Ryan Athey. Rodriguez earned an escape and a takedown in the second period, before riding out the third period top for the victory. McDaniel bounced back with back-to-back victories at 149 and 157-pounds as Thomas Monn earned a 10-0 major decision over junior
Dante Monaco (149) and Xavier Howard pinned first-year
Derek Giordano (157) at the 2:13-mark to tie the dual at ten apiece.
Ursinus responded over the next three bouts as senior
Shawn Marchesano (165) collected an impressive 11-2 major decision, while first-year
Anthony Cerulli collected a fall at 174lbs, and senior
Gary Nagle recorded an 8-7 decision at 184-pounds to lock up the dual meet giving Ursinus a 23-10 advantage heading into the final two bouts.
At 165lbs with the match tied at the end of the first period, Marchesano choose bottom and quickly reversed McDaniel's Alex LaVeck putting him to his back. Marchesano collected four near fall points and would hold a 6-1 advantage heading into the final stanza. In the opening seconds of the third, Marchesano connected on a "fireman's carry" and would later takedown LaVeck again for the major decision.
At 174lbs, Cerulli trailed 2-0 in the early moments but after a reversal he would gather a cross-face cradle for a fall at the 1:37-mark to increase the Bears lead to double-digits with three matches to go.The Bears locked up the dual-meet at 184lbs as Nagle earned a hard-fought 8-7 decision over McDaniel's Michael Bromley to give the Bears a 13-point edge. In the second period with the match tied at four, Nagle tallied a single leg takedown in the closing seconds for a two-point lead heading into the third. Bromley would earn a takedown in the final stanza, but Nagle collected an escape in the final seconds for the victory.
McDaniel earned a pinfall at 197-pounds, but the Bears would collect a decision at 285-pounds as senior
Jake Ahmad recorded a 7-3 decision over Austin Stewart.
Jamison later added "It was great to have Jagger back to give our lineup a jolt; he wrestled well. This was a big weekend for
Gary Nagle as well, who beat two tough opponents. He's been wrestling with a lot of grit. Hats off to Coach
Anthony Terlizzi as well – he made two critical tactical decisions during the dual that were huge for us."
The Bears will return to action on Wednesday as they travel to Delaware Valley for a non-conference dual meet starting at 7pm.
