The Hofstra University wrestling team faced their third top-five opponent of the season on Sunday, Jan. 7, at home against No. 4 North Carolina State University. The Pride fell 43-5 against the Wolfpack with freshman Noah Tapia winning the only match of the day.
Notably absent from the lineup were Dylan Ryder and Ross McFarland with the Pride additionally having to take a forfeit at 133 pounds.
“When we schedule these teams, we didn’t schedule them to get our butts kicked, so it’s frustrating,” said Hofstra head coach Dennis Papadatos. “When we scheduled these duals, we were planning on having Dylan Ryder and Chase Liardi and Justin Hoyle and Ross McFarland, all guys who been nationally ranked and beat nationally ranked guys, and not having them for these dual meets is killing us.”
The Pride’s one win of the day came at 149 pounds where Tapia beat NC State University’s Trevor Kantor. Tapia got a quick takedown at the beginning of the match off a front headlock to a cross-knee pick. Kantor got an escape before Tapia once again used a front headlock to set up another takedown before quickly cutting Kantor and earning a third takedown in the first two minutes of the match.
Tapia went into the second period up 13-2 with Kantor choosing bottom and Tapia giving him an escape point to start in neutral 13-3. After a quick double leg takedown and cross face and turk for four near-fall points, Tapia won the match by technical fall 20-3 at 3:59.
“He started the year 0-6, and he’s 12-9 right now with two ranked wins in those 12,” Papadatos said. “He went out there and dominated someone he should have, and we really like his mindset and his progress. He’s a true freshman who’s figuring it out and we need more guys like that, and we have them, he just clicked and he’s ready to go.”
As for the rest of the Pride, Nikolas Miller (197 pounds), No. 21 Keaton Kluever (285 pounds), Dylan Acevedo (125 pounds) and Will Conlon (184 pounds) all lost by major decision with the smallest margin being within eight points. Alex Turley (141 pounds), Matt Rogers (165 pounds) and Eric Shindel (174 pounds) all lost by technical fall with Jurius Clark (157 pounds) losing by pin.
The Wolfpack had five nationally ranked wrestlers in their lineup: No. 16 Owen Trephan at 285 pounds, No. 4 Ryan Jack at 141 pounds, No. 6 Ed Scott at 157 pounds, No. 20 Derek Fields at 165 pounds and No. 32 Alex Faison at 174 pounds.
Hofstra is now 3-3 on the season and will face the Virginia Military Institute on Saturday, Jan. 13.
“I don’t know where we’re at,” said Papadatos. “We lost to three top-five teams in the country. We got our butts kicked, and we handed three teams [wins] that we thought we were much better than, actually could have been better than, so now we find out. Every team we have left is better than the teams we beat, but none of them are as good as the teams we lost to.”
Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Alexis Friedman
