The Hofstra Pride wrestling team headed down to the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championships at the University of Pennsylvania (U Penn) on March 4 and 5.
The Pride had nine wrestlers competing, with Jacob Ferreira coming into the championships as the team’s highest-seeded wrestler at No. 4. Trey Rogers was seeded not far behind at No. 5, and Zachary Knighton-Ward was seeded at No. 8.
Four of Hofstra’s nine wrestlers moved on to the second day of competition. Justin Hoyle at 141 pounds, Ross McFarland at 174 pounds, Ferreira at 184 pounds and Rogers at 197 pounds ended up victorious on the mat.
McFarland had the biggest win of the day against the former EIWA champ Philip Conigliaro of Harvard University, who won at 165 pounds last year. McFarland bested him 3-1 in a close match; their earlier match this season was also close, with McFarland losing 6-4. He went on to lose just 4-3 against No. 19 Nick Incontrera of U Penn before beating Drew Clearie of Brown University 8-3.
Hoyle started his day strong with an 8-1 win over Jordan Soriano of Drexel University, who he defeated 6-4 in overtime this season. Hoyle was then pinned by No. 13 Vince Cornella of Cornell University at 2:07 before beating Raymond Lopez of American University 9-6.
Ferreira beat Mason McCready of Bucknell University 6-2 before losing to Nate Dugan of Princeton University by a score of 8-3. Finally, Ferreira concluded his day one showing with a victory over Leo Tarantino of Harvard, 4-2 in overtime.
Trey Rogers beat John Dusza of Long Island University (LIU) in convincing fashion, 10-4 to start his day off. He then lost to No. 24 Jacob Koser of the United States Naval Academy (NAVY) 9-7 in a very close match, with Rogers fighting for the takedown until the very end. Finally, he beat Nolan Springer of Bucknell 11-2 to move on to day two.
The most unpredictable defeats of the day for the Pride came at 285 pounds with Zachary Knighton-Ward. The three-time NCAA qualifier and No. 8 seed lost to Brendan Furman of Cornell 8-3 before pinning Alex Semenenko of Brown at 1:22. Knighton-Ward would ultimately lose his final bout of the day, falling to No. 29 Dorian Crosby of Bucknell by an 11-9 score in overtime.
As for the non-ranked competitors for Hofstra, Jacob Moon, at 125 pounds, lost to No. 27 Nick Babin of Columbia University 7-0 and was pinned by Robert Sagaris of LIU at 4:26.
At 133, Chase Liardi was pinned by Conner McGonagle of Lehigh University at the 4:32 mark, and he lost to Jack Maida of American in overtime, 3-1.
In the 149-pound weight class, Michael Leandrou lost by default to Patrick Ryan of American 3-0 at 3:47. He beat Michael McGhee of Sacred Heart University 3-1 in overtime before losing to Kaemen Smith of Navy 15-3.
And finally, at 165 pounds, Matt Rogers beat Noah Bash of Franklin and Marshall College 14-13 to kick off his series of matches. He was then pinned by No. 7 Julian Ramirez of Cornell at 2:26, and he lost by technical fall against Val Park of Navy 15-0 at 4:12.
At the end of day one, Cornell led all team scores with 82.5 points; Lehigh was behind them with 68.5, followed by U Penn and Columbia.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Evan Bernstein
