Wrestling drops two of three in New York

By Rocco Schirripa

The wrestling team left the Sprawl and Brawl, hosted by Binghamton, hungry for more after defeating one of the three schools it faced on Nov. 22.
“I thought we wrestled very well against Edinboro, and that’s what we’re capable of, but I don’t think we wrestled that well against Pitt,” Head Coach Gary Taylor said to Rider Sports Information.
Junior Rob Morrison is impressed with his team’s energy and enthusiasm.
“It was the first time in a long time that I’ve seen the team so excited over every match,” he said. “Even most of the fans were getting into our match while six other teams were competing at the same time.”
The Broncs lost a close one against Edinboro with a score of 18-12. They then played Pittsburgh and were defeated 30-9. However, they rebounded quickly and dominated Davidson by a score of 48-3.
A notable highlight of the day was when senior Michael Kessler, who is ranked 20th in the nation, and freshman Zac Cibula both won all three of their matches.
“With their wins over Lock Haven, they both went 4-0 for the weekend,” Taylor said to Rider Sports Information. “Kessler is beginning to figure it out in spurts.”
Morrison had a great day, winning both of his decisions against Pittsburgh and Davidson, although he lost a very close and controversial match to the top-ranked wrestler in the nation, 4-3.
“I had an opportunity to have a huge win but came up short,” Morrison said.
Taylor explained the situation and understood the implications.
“Robbie actually took him down, but the referee said the kid screamed on the way down and he didn’t give Robbie the takedown,” Taylor said to Rider Sports Information. “It was very debatable and it was the difference in the match.”
Sophomore Aaron Nester won against Edinboro and also won a major decision against Davidson.  Also, fellow sophomore Tyler Smith won both of his decisions against Davidson and Edinboro.
Sophomore Jimmy Kirchner and junior Joe Ferber won their decisions by fall against Davidson and Edinboro, and freshman Jim Resnick won by technical fall.
The Broncs’ next competition is the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas Dec. 4 and 5.
“There were a lot of good things and some bad things,” Morrison said. “The promising point about the bad things is that they can be easily fixed.”