By By Tim Robertson
Pride wrestling head coach Tom Ryan is disappointed with the uncharacteristically slow beginning to the 2005-06 season, but vows the team will get better and will win as long as the team can remain healthy and competes with a full roster every match.
The Pride had a rocky November that included a nail-biting loss and an unfortunate tie, but ended the opening month on a positive note at the East Stroudsburg Open, an individual tournament. The Pride grabbed three first-place finishes, three second-place finishes and a third-place finish.
Chris Vondruska (7-1) at 165, Mike Patrovich (7-0) at 174 and Joe Rovelli (8-0) at 184, all earned top honors for the Pride. Rovelli also moved up a spot to 14th at 184 pounds in the nation, according to the W.I.N. Magazine rankings. Also appearing in the individual rankings were senior Jon Masa, who is third at 149 pounds and junior James Strouse is 15th at 157 pounds. However, the Pride dropped five spots in the W.I.N. Magazine team rankings after losing a close match at home to Oregon State University (OSU).
The unranked Beavers jumped out to a 14-6 lead after five matches before the Pride stormed back to take a 17-14 edge heading into the final heavyweight match, featuring the Pride’s Jon Andriac and OSU’s Ty Watterson. The Pride needed to stay away a heavyweight loss in order to hold on, but could tie the Beavers if the team avoided a technical fall or a major decision.
“Jon’s job was to at least not give up a major decision,” Ryan said. Jon will get better. He works hard and wants to win.”
Undoubtedly the Pride did not expect to lose the home opener, but there are some positives to take away from it.
“It was a good win by Chris Weidman, another dominating win by Mike Patrovich and Joe Rovelli,” Ryan said. “Overall though this team has got to improve and we must get our best team on the mat. We will get better.”
Just two days earlier the Pride struggled against Army, a team it easily defeated last season, 28-9. The final match did the Pride in and led to an unforeseen tie with Army. Army’s Patrick Simpson delivered a 6:52 tech fall against freshman Michael Martini at 149 pounds with six seconds left in the match to deadlock the two squads at 19 points.
This time the Pride did not have to claw back in the match like it was forced to do against OSU, as it controlled a 13-4 lead after five matches. However, a major decision by Army heavyweight Michael Sprigg over Andriac and a pin by Frank Baughan against Robbie Deibert brought Army back into the match.
Posting big wins for the Pride against Army, unsurprisingly, were Patrovich and Rovelli. Patrovich recorded a major decision, 10-1, over Scott Ferguson and Rovelli defeated Luke Calvert, 6-1.
The Pride was without top wrestlers LaForge and Masa for both opening matches because they had yet to receive their NCAA waivers, according to Ryan. Both wrestlers did compete in the East Stroudsburg Open, as LaForge finished second at 141 pounds and Masa finished sixth at 157 pounds.
Ryan and the Pride will need to put a finger on the reasons for the early disappointments.
“There is no one reason for our lack of performance to this point. Everyone in our program has played a role in this slow start,” Ryan said. “This is a team sport and everyone must do their job.”
The Pride will look for success out west this weekend as they take part in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
“Overall, we need more intensity. Like winning, losing is habit forming. Losing is not something that we consider an option in our program. We train to win, and we will,” Ryan said.