By Mark Walters
ST. LOUIS-It wasn’t what they wanted, but trust me, it will be okay.
No All-Americans for the first time in seven years, of course it’s disappointing, but no one on this young Pride team will hang their hat on it. They wrestled hard.
Ryan Patrovich upset the undefeated and no. 1-ranked Mack Lewnes from Cornell, someone he lost to back in February, and had to witness Jarrod King, someone Patrovich decided a little more than a month ago, win the 165-pound title.
“He had an unbelievable tournament,” Patrovich said. “When I’m at nationals and get knocked out, don’t All-American, you look at the negatives. But as time goes on you can look at the positives and know that you can beat anyone.”
It was that kind of silver lining that will keep the Pride on track this off-season, and Patrovich isn’t the only one.
Lou Ruggirello beat a guy this year that he lost to last year in the exact same round. Instead of Navy’s Joe Baker deciding him, Ruggirello pinned the Midshipman. Last year Patrovich goes 0-2, this year he upsets Lewnes and makes the quarterfinals.
While Hofstra may be young, it can now deem itself experienced. The 8 different wrestlers faced a whopping 12 seeded opponents. Only Alton Lucas lost to wrestlers who didn’t go on to become All-Americans, and he didn’t put up much of a fight.
Steve Bonanno (125), Justin Accordino (141), and PJ Gillespie (149) all made their NCAA tournament debuts, and all exceeded expectations. Gillespie was the only unseeded 149-pound quarterfinalist, Bonanno lost to a guy he had beaten earlier this year and Accordino had to face no. 1 Kellen Russell from Michigan.
Everyone had tough draws, so to call the Pride’s zero All-American performance a disgrace would be ignorant.
Additionally, the Pride faced nerves and an overwhelming crowd. Collectively throughout the three days it was the largest crowd the NCAA Wrestling Championships had ever seen.
The future is certainly bright, as Coach Shifflet will return nine of this year’s starting ten, including seven of his eight NCAA qualifiers. The two freshmen that didn’t get to St. Louis-Ben Clymer (184) and Jordan Enck (285)-will only improve.
Clymer lost to Rider’s Doug Umbehauer 3-2 in the conference semifinals. Umbehauer finished third in the nation. Jordan Enck lost to Kent State’s Jermail Porter in November by a point. Porter finished sixth.
Keep in mind that this young, up and coming team will be moving into a brand new facility, the Teague Ryan Wrestling Complex, featuring state of the art amenities, including a new cardio and strength center, a refurbished locker room, its own sports medicine room and student-athlete lounge.
It’s going to take the program closer to the top, as recruiting will improve.
“Kids going out to an Oklahoma or Penn State and seeing their facilities, we’ve lost numerous kids to their facilities,” assistant coach Rob Anspach said. “Not to their programs, to their facilities.”
Anspach is confident that the better recruits will heighten the intensity of the room.
“If you have better wrestlers in there it raises everybody’s level. It makes the room more competitive,” Anspach said.
Meanwhile, the guys are equally as positive.
“We got the new facility and we’re a young team,” Patrovich said. “We still have some positives to look at and get back in there and continue to work hard and hopefully it will pay off for next year.”