For the 118th EIWA Championship, the Hofstra wrestling team headed upstate to Ithaca, New York, to take on various wrestlers across the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) conference. This year’s championships weren’t the first rodeo for some, as Ricky Stamm, Ross McFarland, Charles Small, Trey Rogers and Zachary Knighton-Ward all competed for the Pride at last year’s EIWA Championship. Justin Hoyle also previously competed, but at the 116th Championship in 2020.
To get the day started, the Pride suffered losses at 125, 133 and 157 pounds. At 141 pounds, sophomore Justin Hoyle took away two wins with a close 3-2 decision over Army West Point’s Tyler Hunt and a 6-2 decision over Long Island University’s Devin Matthews. Hoyle also suffered one loss to Ryan Anderson of Binghamton University by a 13-2 major decision.
Despite falling short in his first and third round, sophomore Michael Leandrou achieved a win by medical forfeit over Sacred Heart University’s Rafael Lievano at 149 pounds.
A sixth-year senior, Stamm is no stranger to championships, especially after qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in the 2020-21 season and advancing to the quarterfinals of the EIWA Championship in February 2021. This year, Stamm achieved one win by decision over LIU’s Blake Bahna.
Red-shirt freshman McFarland, who was seeded at No. 15, was defeated by Chris Foca of Cornell University but snagged a win by fall at 6:58 over Sacred Heart’s Alex Marciniak in round 16 of the consolation matches.
Heading into the quarterfinals at 184 pounds, Small, seeded at No. 3 in one of the heavily-favored weight classes, defeated both of his opponents, Brad Laughlin of Army West Point and Leo Tarantino of Harvard University. Small captured the victory against Tarantino by gaining several takedowns and escapes in the second period and one last takedown in the third period. Facing Laughlin in the quarterfinals, Small won 2-1 in a second tiebreaker period. Small fought off a takedown attempt with a second left in the sudden-victory overtime round, and he earned a crucial escape with 10 seconds left in the first tiebreaker.
Following both wins, Rogers defeated Brown University’s Cade Wilson by the major decision but fell short to Princeton University’s Luke Stout by a 10-4 decision.
Like Small, Knighton-Ward took away two wins against both of his opponents. Knighton-Ward achieved a pin within less than a minute by dominating No. 14 Lear Quinton of Brown with a quick slam to the mat in round 16, which sent him to the final round of championships. For his quarterfinal match against No. 11 Isaac Righter of American University, Knighton-Ward fought with ease, winning by a 12-4 major decision.
Day two of the tournament began with semifinalists Hoyle, Small and Knighton-Ward achieving podium finishes. Hoyle finished eighth in his second EIWA Championship as he advanced to the consolation quarterfinals, losing a 14-0 major decision to Lehigh University’s Connor McGonagle. As a result, Hoyle took on Princeton’s Danny Coles for a seventh-place matchup but fell short in an 11-4 decision. Nevertheless, Hoyle put in a valiant effort, giving Hofstra its third tournament victory.
Small began his second day by facing another Princeton Tiger, Travis Stefanik, in the two-seed bracket but lost in an 8-5 decision. Next, he took on Drexel University’s Bryan McLaughlin as part of the consolation bracket round. Finally, Small advanced to the third-place match, where he faced Lehigh’s AJ Burkhart and lost by a 3-2 decision to the seventh-seeded wrestler.
Knighton-Ward took on Cornell’s two-seed Lewis Fernandes but lost by a 5-0 decision. He then dropped to the consolation match against Binghamton’s Joe Doyle and was defeated by pin. Finally, he lost a 3-1 decision against No. 8, Matt Cover of Princeton, for his final match, finishing in sixth place.
Hofstra finished in 12th place out of 17 and totaled 36 team points. Cornell finished first and earned its 27th EIWA team title in program history and its first since 2017. They finished the tournament with 153 points, holding off second-place University of Pennsylvania, who had 120.5 points. Four-time defending champion Lehigh came in fourth with 111 points.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
