COLLEGEVILLE, PA. – First-year Anthony Cerulli, along with seniors Terry Adams (125lbs), and Kyle Schaffer (197lbs) each earned second-place finishes leading the Ursinus College men's wrestling team to a fourth-place finish while hosting the Will Abele Invitational on Saturday.


 
The Bears saw 11 wrestlers earn top-seven finishes including at least two members at four different weight classes (125lbs, 174lbs, 184lbs, and 285lbs).


 
"We wrestled very well today, and the coaching staff is impressed with how we competed," Director of Wrestling Joe Jamison said. "There were some dramatic improvements on some mistakes that we made last weekend, and that is a big step in the right direction. For us to finish fourth in a field this strong, even though we didn't have anyone at 157lbs or 165lbs is nothing to scoff at. There are a lot of positive takeaways that we can use moving forward as we begin our conference schedule next weekend."


 
Adams finished 3-1 on the day improving his season record to 17-6 behind a 17-2 technical fall in his opening match over Shenandoah's Elliot Rivera and advanced to the semifinals with a 12-5 decision over RIT's John Freebern. He advanced to the finals with a 11-4 decision over East Stroudsburg's Joshua Jaslonwicz before falling to a JUCO All-American in Kevin Lopez (Nassau Community College) by a 5-4 decision. On the opposite side of the bracket, sophomore Franco Mazza seeded sixth, wrestled well finishing in sixth place behind a 4-2 record. Mazza advanced to the quarterfinals behind a 16-0 tech-fall over Western New England's Clayton O'Connor and a fall over Shenandoah's Tyler McDonald at the 2:31-mark of the first period. After a loss in the quarters, Mazza bounced back with back-to-back major decisions including a 10-0 major decision over Gettysburg's Antonio Abate who finished fourth last season at the Centennial Conference Championships.


 
At 174lbs, first-year Anthony Cerulli took home second place while junior Jackson Brandt collected a fourth-place finish. Cerulli impressed throughout the afternoon knocking off the No. 1 seed Scranton's William Laughlin by fall (1:43) and advanced to the finals by pinning Shenandoah's Dylan Weaver at the 2:32-mark of the first period. Cerulli finished 3-1 after dropping his finals match 5-2 to the No.3 seed Oneonta's Kenny Sauer. Brandt opened with back-to-back decisions over Western New England's Jaylen Hawkins (8-5) and Nassau's Stephen Dickerson (4-1) to advance to the semi-finals. Brandt fell to the eventual champion Kenny Sauer by a 6-0 decision and dropped the third-place match to Shenandoah's Dylan Weaver for the fourth-place finish.
 


 "AJ Cerulli had his coming out party today", Jamison said. "He is a hard-working kid that does all the right things and just continues to improve. We're excited to see where this goes with him."
 

 
Senior Gary Nagle recorded a third-place finish at 184lbs, while first-year Nils Updale (184lbs) collected a seventh-place finish in the same weight class. Nagle, the No.3 seed opened with back-to-back pinfalls over Oneonta's Joel Zea (0:45) and Western New England's Charles Maloy (4:03) to advance to the quarterfinals. After an 8-0 major decision victory in the quarters, Nagle fell to No. 2 seed and No.7^th ranked wrestler in the country TCNJ's Quinn Haddad by a 4-0 decision. He closed out the tournament with a first period pin over the No. 5 seed Oneonta's Jack Ryan at the 1:32-mark. Updale, the No.4 seed opened with back-to-back victories as he claimed a 7-4 decision over American International's Matt Bremner and advanced to the quarters with a 12-4 major decision over James Delucia of Oneonta. After a 4-2 loss in the quarters, Updale finished 2-1 in the consolations for the seventh-place finish.
 


At 197lbs, senior Kyle Schaffer (No. 2 seed) collected a second-place finish after a 4-1 record. Schaffer earned back-to-back victories advancing to quarterfinals with a 4-0 decision over TCNJ's Vincent Milltello and a victory via medical forfeit over RIT's Nick Smith. He advanced to the finals with a fall over Nassau's Matthew Clarkson within 36 seconds and a 6-2 decision over Ajay Hiller of East Stroudsburg. In the finals, Schaffer fell via a fall to RIT's Josh Harkless.


 
Seniors Jake Ahmad (4^th) and Gavin Range (6^th) each placed at the 285lb weight class. Ahmad recorded back-to-back pinfalls to advance to the semifinals. He collected a third period pin over Scranton's Hunter Marham at the 5:30-mark and followed up with a first period pin over Keystone's Brendan Hamilton at the 1:45-mark. Ahmad dropped his semifinal match to RIT's Nate Degroff and medically defaulted out of the tournament for the fourth-place finish. Range dropped his opening match to the No. 1 seed TCNJ's Pete Wersinger but bounced back recording four consecutive victories in the consolations. He collected four straight decisions before falling in his final match of the tournament. Range earned a 2-2 OT victory over Gettysburg's Simon Taylor, a 3-1 decision over Spencer Dickinson of Western New England, a 4-1 decision over TCNJ's Christopher Stavrou, and a 6-3 decision over Andrew Bumpus of American International.
 


Senior Romeo Rodriguez earned a seventh-place finish at 141lbs behind a 3-2 record. He opened with a 11-6 decision over Oneonta's Gregory Branch before falling in the quarterfinals to RIT's Josh Post by a score of 10-1. Rodriguez bounced back with an 11-3 major decision over Elmira's Blake O'Brien and won the seventh-place match in a rematch defeating Branch again 2-0.
 


Junior Dante Monaco collected a fourth-place finish at 149lbs after finishing with a 3-2 record. Monaco the No.3 seed opened with three consecutive victories to advance to the semi-finals. After a 5-2 decision in his opening match, he earned back-to-back pinfalls over Western New England's Louis Stablle (5:37) and Gettysburg's Eric Mougallan (2:12) to advance to the semifinals. He fell in his final two matches via close decisions (6-0, 3-0) to earn the fourth-place finish.
 

 
The Bears will return to action on Friday, January 20^th as they travel to Baltimore, Maryland for a dual meet with Johns Hopkins at 7pm.