By By Tim Robertson
In Las Vegas, you’re either very lucky or horribly unlucky, and the same goes for the Pride wrestling team.
Wrestling on the Strip seemed to help the Pride, as senior leader Mike Patrovich continued to show his dominance on the mat last weekend, finishing second at 174 pounds in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Patrovich dropped a 16-5 Saturday afternoon decision against top-seeded Ben Askren from the University of Missouri.
Patrovich started off the invitational with two technical falls and a decision that earned him a spot in Friday night’s quarterfinal round. From there, Patrovich finished off the 10th and 11th seeds at 174 pounds in order to reach the final for a one versus two championship match against Askren, the top-ranked 174 pound wrestler in the country. The loss at the Cashman Center was Patrovich’s first of the season, dropping him to 12-1 overall.
“Askren wrestles at a fast pace, and as a staff we need to challenge Mike (Patrovich) some more,” head coach Tom Ryan said.
Making waves in Las Vegas along with Patrovich was sophomore Joe Rovelli, who advanced to the Friday night quarterfinal round, going 4-2 before being sent into the consolation round. His quarterfinal loss was to the top seed at 184 pounds, Pete Friedl of Illinois, in overtime. Rovelli moved to 12-2 on the year entering the dual meets Sunday.
Joining Patrovich and Rovelli in the quarterfinals for the Pride were junior James Strouse and sophomore Dave Tomasette. Strouse lost in the quarterfinals to second seed and fourth ranked Dustin Manotti of Cornell in a tight 3-2 decision. Strouse went on to the consolation bracket, beating Scott Loescher of Stanford and Cody Harrington of UNC Greensboro to capture seventh place at 157 pounds. Tomasette lost his quarterfinal match at 125 pounds to Troy Nickerson, the fourth seed out of Cornell, and was subsequently pinned in his rematch against Oregon State’s Eric Stevenson in 3:25. Tomasette won the pair’s match in November with a 10-5 decision.
After an opening round loss to Oregon State’s Ty Watterson, junior Jon Andriac wrestled his way through four opponents to earn wins, but lost to Tervel Diagner from Nebraska-Kearney in 1:32, as Diagner earned a pin against the Pride’s heavyweight.
The Pride were without a wrestler at 133 pounds as Ricky LaForge, coming off a promising second place finish at the East Stroudsburg Open, failed to make weight Friday morning. He also had to sit out the first two dual meets because he had yet to receive his NCAA waiver. The dual meets on Sunday will be LaForge’s first and second of the season. The Pride also did not have a representative at 197 pounds, as junior Chris Weidman is injured. However, according to Ryan, Weidman will be ready for the duals this weekend.
The Pride, who finished third a year ago, placed 11th out of 52 teams with 61.5 points. Michigan, who will make the trip to the University Arena in early January, finished first with 145 points. Cornell and Pennsylvania, both Pride opponents later this season, placed second and 10th, respectively.
While assistant coaches made the cross-country trip, Ryan took 10 members of the Pride to compete in the Nittany Lion Open at Penn State last weekend.
“I went to Penn State to look at some of the guys not in the lineup and determine what we are going to do second semester,” Ryan said. “There will be changes made. We are going to put the best team on the mat.”
Looking to be included in those changes was sophomore Charles Griffin, who dropped his title match, 11-1, to Andy Simmons of Michigan State at 141 pounds. Freshman Alton Lucas of West Babylon took fifth place at 174 pounds over Dave Sullivan with an 8-2 victory for the Pride.
The Pride goes into this weekend trying to improve its 0-1-1 dual meet record against two Ivy League foes, Columbia and Harvard.
“Both teams have some quality guys, so there will be some big match-ups,” Ryan said.
The match against the Pride will be the first dual meet for the Lions. Columbia finished 41st out of 52 teams at the Keen Invitational last weekend. For Harvard, who finished 17th, the match against the Pride will also be its first dual meet competition. The double dual meet is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. on Sunday at the Arena.
(Photo Courtesy Athletic Dept.)
