To kick off the 2025-26 Hofstra University wrestling season, Frank Volpe and Jake Slotnick placed at the 2025 Princeton Open on Sunday, Nov. 2. Volpe, a redshirt sophomore, placed third at 157 pounds while Slotnick, also a redshirt sophomore, placed fifth at 165 pounds.
Volpe gritted out four wins, culminating in a 4-1 victory over Princeton University’s Gavin Hawk. A takedown with just 17 seconds left in the third period secured Volpe the win. His one loss of the day came from Kellen Smith of United States Military Academy West Point in the semi-finals, who earned seven points in overtime from a takedown and four near-fall points, ending the match automatically 16-9.
Slotnick started the day falling 14-4 to Keller Rock of Oregon State University in the round of 32. Battling through the consolation bracket, he earned one win by technical fall 20-5 followed by three wins by decision. In his fifth-place match, Slotnick held Brown University’s Connor O’Donnell to just one escape point, winning 5-1.
There were mixed results for some of Hofstra’s returning starters: Chase Liardi earned one win on the day at 133 pounds but was held scoreless in two matches, falling 1-0 to Sebastian Ortega of Princeton and 6-0 to Roman Lermer of Columbia University. At 149 pounds, Noah Tapia wrestled unattached, and while he had a dominant win over Hogan Horsey of Rider University, winning by fall by also earning 18 points, he also suffered two losses by major decision. He lost to Oregon State’s CJ Hamblin 15-3 and Chance Lamer of Nebraska University 14-4.
Freshman Chase Hontz earned three wins in his debut with the Pride. In the same weight bracket as Volpe, the rookie lost by technical fall 20-4 in his initial match in the round of 32 to Nick Stampoulos of Lock Haven University. Not to be discouraged, Hontz won his next match by decision 8-1 and followed that up by earning his first collegiate victory by fall over Chase Burke of Lock Haven as well as his first overtime win 4-1 over Army’s Micah Hanau.
Josh Jorgge also secures his first collegiate wins at 184 pounds. In a high scoring start to the day, he scored the first two and the final takedown in a 15-11 win over Army’s Cole Karpinski. He lost by technical fall 23-4 in the quarterfinals before earning his second win 5-3 over Princeton’s Max Stein. His day ended with 7-3 loss to Brown’s Thomas Sandoval.
As for the rest of the Pride’s competitors: Teague Strobel went 2-2 at 125 pounds, Adrian Sans went 2-2 at 285 pounds, Alex Turley went 1-2 at 149 pounds, Eric Shindel went 1-2 at 157 pounds, Matthew Waddell went 1-2 at 174 pounds, Danny Church went 1-2 at 285 pounds, Dylan Zenion went 0-2 at 157 pounds and Jurius Clark went 0-2 at 174 pounds.
The Pride look to their first dual meets of the season at Journeymen Wrestling’s Wranglemania 2025 on Saturday, Nov. 8, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. They will take on Duke University and Appalachian State University before turning around the next day for the Journeymen Collegiate Classic open tournament.
