By Mark Walters
Despite splitting its two matches last weekend-losing to Edinboro and beating SUNY Buffalo-the Pride wrestling team moved up in this week’s USA Today/InterMat/NWCA Rankings from 23rd to 22nd. The shift in the poll likely is due in part to Ryan Patrovich, previously unranked at 165 pounds, finding himself 20th in the nation after two wins, one over Edinboro’s Jarrod King. King was ninth at the time of the match, but has slid to 11th after his loss to Patrovich.
Patrovich’s win-his seventh in his last 10 outings-however, was only one of four of the bouts Hofstra managed to take. The Fighting Scots took the other six en route to a 26-13 victory at McComb Field House last Saturday evening. The Pride fell to 8-6 this season while Edinboro improved to 13-4.
No. 20 Freshman Steve Bonanno faced Edinboro’s top-ranked senior and defending national champion, Paul Donahoe at 125. Donahoe was up 5-0 in the second period, and beat Bonanno 8-3 to stay undefeated on the season. At 133, No. 8 Lou Ruggirello avenged his loss to Edinboro’s 19th-ranked Ricky Deubel at the Southern Scuffle in December. Ruggirello shut out Deubel 5-0, and Hofstra took a 6-3 lead in the match as Justin Accordino scored eight points in the second period of his 141-pound bout against Steve Waite.
Edinboro took the next two matches as Torsten Gillespie earned a 17-2 tech fall at the 5:14 mark over Pride sophomore Jeff Rotella. Torsten’s older brother, Gregor, who is the top-ranked wrestler at 157 pounds gave his team a 14-6 lead with a pin of freshman Fran O’Brien in 3:59.
The match was the closest after senior Alton Lucas scored his third major decision of the season. He defeated John Foley 16-4 to make the match 14-13 in Edinboro’s favor, but the Scots took the remaining three bouts. At 184, No. 17 Chris Honeycutt decided freshman Ben Clymer 6-0, and Joe Fagiano lost 6-2 to Pat Bradshaw at 197. The match was Fagiano’s first since December 12 against Binghamton. To close things out before heading north to Buffalo for Sunday’s match, No. 12 Joe Fendone pinned freshman Jordan Enck at 3:44 in the heavyweight bout.
Once back in the Empire State for its second of two matches, Hofstra downed Buffalo 24-13 to improve to 9-6. Buffalo fell to 9-9.
The Pride took control early, winning the first three bouts including two by fall. Bonanno opened things up with a 6-3 decision over Dan Bishop at 125. After that, Ruggirello recorded his 15th fall of the season as he pinned Taylor Golba in 1:20. Accordino followed suit and pinned Mark Lewandowski in 40 seconds to give the Pride a 15-0 lead.
The Bulls responded though when No. 18 Desmond Green posted a major decision over Rotella at 149. At 157, John Martin-Cannon made it two straight for the home team as he downed O’Brien, 10-4, to make it 15-7. But Hofstra took the next two matches courtesy of Patrovich’s 8-3 win over Ron Majerus at 165 and Lucas’ 7-5 victory over Nate Rock at 174. Lucas was tied with Rock until he scored a third-period takedown.
Ben Clymer lost the next bout 3-2 after he surrendered a third-period reversal and a penalty point. At 197, Joe Fagiano had a 4-3 advantage entering the third but found himself down 7-5 as time expired. In the match’s finale at heavyweight, Jordan Enck decided Buffalo’s Brett Correll 3-1.
Hofstra travels to Cambridge, Massachusetts this Friday night, February 20 for a 7 p.m. match against Harvard. Following that match, the Pride will have a weekend off before attempting to defend their conference title in the CAA Wrestling Championships on March 6-7 in Chesapeake, Virginia.
Wrestling Notes
It’s still unkown if Hofsta’s No. 16 157-pounder, Jonny Bonilla-Bowman, will return to action after hurting muscles in his abdomen against Cornell two weeks ago, but should he take to the mat up in Boston, he will face No. 4 JP O’Connor.
According to Bonilla-Bowman before the Edinboro match, he said it hurt to sneeze. Hopefully he doesn’t re-aggravate anything heading into the championship part of the season.
At 184, Ben Clymer will have another tough opponent against Harvard’s Chris Caputo. Caputo is ranked 10th, ahead of Edinboro’s Chris Honeycutt. The freshman has been working hard up in Hofstra’s wrestling room though, so expect a breakout win before CAA’s in two weeks. Also keep an eye on Fagiano. While he may be a little rusty after missing more than a month, expect him to get some swagger back this weekend heading into the postseason.