COLLEGEVILLE (Pa.) – Junior Austin Williams took home the heavyweight title and five different Aggies placed as the Delaware Valley University men's wrestling team earned sixth place out of 14 teams at the Racich Rumble hosted by Ursinus College on Saturday.
It was the second tournament of the 2021-22 campaign and 19 student-athletes represented DelVal as it battled early injuries to the team. Williams led the way with his first place finish, first-years Jackson Crawn (197) and Ryan Kelly (125) took second place, sophomore Dan Eckley finished fourth at heavyweight, and senior Youssef Ait Boulahri earned fifth at 174 pounds
Williams led the Aggies with a 5-0 record including a thrilling 5-2 decision over 2020 NCAA national qualifier and MAC Champion Palmer Rodenhaber of conference foe Alvernia. Williams got a first period takedown, but Rodenhaber battled back with a pair of escapes to tie that match at 2-2 going into the third. Williams worked another takedown with 10 second left in the third and tacked on another point by way of riding time to earn the heavyweight crown.
Williams found himself in the finals after pins in the semis and quarters. He put Chris Gens on his back with 10 second left in the match before taking just 2:09 to defeat Malcolm Hunt of Ursinus by fall in the semis. His other two wins came by way of 11-6 decision over third-seed David Aranda in round one, and 5-2 decision over Brian McKinnon of Wilkes.
Also in the heavyweight bracket was Eckley who cruised through the first two rounds with a pair of major decisions. In the quarterfinals, he met Dylan Waller of Elizabethtown and the two competitors battled for three periods. Waller got the first takedown and held a 3-1 lead going into the third. Eckley worked an escape to start the final period, but then got taken down to fall behind 4-2. A quick escape by Eckley made it a one-point match, then a takedown with under 10 seconds left put him in front by one. However, before the final whistle, Waller worked an escape for the 6-5 decision. Eckley and Waller met again in the consolation finals after Eckley won three more matches on the way there by way of fall, major decision, and medical forfeit. In the rematch, Waller got the best of Eckley again in a 9-6 decision and Eckley settled for fifth.
Kelly, the first-year lightweight, cruised to the finals with four-straight wins. He took a 13-0 major decision to start the day, an 11-9 decision over Hunter Rinehart of Messiah, a third-period fall over Benny Bautista of New York University, and he held a 13-9 advantage in the semis before earning the win by default.
In the finals, Kelly met Jared Kuhns of MAC rival York College. Kuhns led 4-1 after the first period thanks to a pair of takedowns and added five more points in the second to build a comfortable lead on the way to a 12-5 decision as Kelly was awarded second place overall.
Fellow first-year Jackson Crawn also cruised to the finals with four-straight wins before falling in the finals to top-ranked Camden Farrow of York. Crawn pinned Kevin Falcon of Wilkes in his first match, took a 10-8 decision over Will Shiber of Johns Hopkins, and then met second-seed Tonee Ellis of Alvernia in the quarterfinals. Crawn broke the scoring in the second with an early escape, but the match went to overtime knotted at 1-1. Early in the overtime period, Crawn was able to grab Ellis and take him down for the narrow 3-1 victory to advance to the semi-finals. He used a second period pin to advance to the finals where he earned second place.
The senior Ait-Boulahri, coming off a 5-1 outing a week ago, went 3-2 this Saturday to earn fifth place overall. He cruised to wins of 13-2 (MD) and 18-3 (TF) in his first two bouts before meeting Joe Paul of Johns Hopkins in the semi-finals. The two wrestlers dueled to a 3-3 tie after three periods to send the match to overtime where Paul got a takedown to earn the 5-3 win.
Full results from the Racich Rumble can be found here.
