A local rivalry may be forming as the Hofstra University wrestling team won a close dual meet 22-14 against the Long Island University (LIU) Sharks. The Pride beat their Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) opponent at home on Saturday, Jan. 27, to up their record to 7-3 overall and 2-0 in the EIWA. The Pride now have a four-game win streak. With the loss, the Sharks are now 5-6 and 0-3.
“Definitely not satisfied, definitely not happy, but a win is a win and we’re 7-3, beat some good teams with them being one of them,” said Hofstra head coach Dennis Papadatos. “We’ll take the lesson and the victory and move on; that’s the plan.”
The most exciting match came at the end of the day with Hofstra team captain No. 29 Ross McFarland’s nail-biter of a match against Corey Connolly. After a scoreless first and second period, Connolly got set on bottom going into the third.
Connolly got hit with two calls for an incorrect starting position which gave a point to McFarland. When the action started, McFarland built up to his feet with Connolly hanging onto him and trying to put a leg in. From his feet, McFarland grabbed Connolly’s leg and swung him over time to get the two reversal points.
The action didn’t stop, however, with McFarland locking up a cradle to secure four points for near-fall. After a riding time point, McFarland won the match 8-0, securing the team victory.
The Sharks earned the first win of the day at 184 pounds where Will Conlon fell to Anthony D’Alesio. This was the third meeting between the two, with Conlon winning the first 2-1 before losing 10-2 and 9-5 during the dual. Hofstra was quick to come back with the Pride winning the next four matches.
At 197 pounds, Hofstra’s Nikolas Miller also faced a familiar opponent in LIU’s John Dusza. Miller won the last two matches 15-6 and 18-3 respectively, but Dusza kept it much closer in this match with Miller winning 8-3.
No. 19 Keaton Kluever had yet another dominant match at 285 pounds. Kluever’s opponent Jared Tracey bumped up from his usual 197-pound weight class. Despite being outsized and outworked, Tracey kept the match to a 21-4 win by technical fall for Kluever, giving the Pride five team points rather than the six they would receive upon a forfeit.
Dylan Acevedo-Switzer and Dylan Ryder both gave gritty performances for Hofstra at 125 pounds and 133 pounds to win 3-2 and by major decision 16-3, respectively.
The Sharks won the next three weight classes to close the gap at 15-14 going into the last two matches.
Jake Slotnick got it done for the Pride after an early takedown to win 6-2 over James Johnston at 165 pounds.
“With what we’ve been handed, I’m happy with the 7-3, even though I felt like at [Franklin & Marshall College] and here we didn’t even wrestle that well, we beat two pretty good teams to get that done,” Papadatos said. “Looking forward to February.”
The Pride’s next competition will be the Edinboro Open in Edinboro, Pennsylvania on Saturday, Feb. 3, and their next dual meet is at home in the Davis S. Mack Physical Education Center against Binghamton University on Feb. 9 at 6 p.m.
Photo courtesy of Alexis Friedman/Hofstra Athletics
