ROCHESTER (N.Y.) – First-year Ryan Kelly and sophomore Dan Eckley earned first-place finishes as the Delaware Valley University men's wrestling team had seven place-winners in total to earn third overall out of 16 division III teams at the RIT Invitational on Saturday.
Eckley defeated fellow Aggie Austin Williams in the finals to give DelVal the top-2 finishers in the heavyweight bracket, and Kelly claimed his first collegiate title at 125 pounds.
As a team, the Aggies racked up 105 points and finished just behind a pair of nationally ranked programs. Host RIT, ranked 17th in the country, finished first overall with 168.5 points and seventh-ranked John Carroll took second with 150.5 points.
Kelly, the first-year 125-pounder, now has finishes of third place, second place, second place, and first place in his first four collegiate tournaments. He came out of the gates on fire with a 16-0 technical fall in his first match and a second period pin in his second bout. In the championship quarterfinals, Kelly earned his second pin of the afternoon as he got Jeff Robinson of RIT to his back just before the end of the second period to advance to the semi-finals. There, he met another Tiger wrestler in Lee Rubin and cruised to an 8-3 decision to advance to the finals.
In the 125-pound finals, Kelly took on his third RIT wrestler of the day in Logan Patterson. Patterson scored first with an early takedown, but Kelly eventually escaped and fired back with a takedown of his own just before the end of the first to go ahead, 3-2, after one. Kelly tacked on an escape in the third and held the advantage in riding time to secure the 5-2 victory and his first collegiate title.
Williams held the number-one seed in the 285-pound bracket and his teammate, Eckley, entered as the two-seed. Eckley made his way to the finals with a pair of pins and a medical forfeit while Williams got by with two decisions and a pin. In the final bout between the practice partners, Eckley caught Williams with a reversal that resulted in a second period pin as Eckley came away with the win and Williams proudly took second.
In the 141-pound bracket, DelVal came away with the fourth and third place-winners. First-year Mike Rubino wrestled the maximum amount of matches and finished the day 5-1 overall. He earned a 6-1 decision and a 16-0 tech. fall before succumbing to a pin to Chris Horton of RIT in the quarterfinals. Rubino battled back with an impressive major decision over Americo Milani followed by back-to-back pins to end the day and earn fourth place.
Also at 141 pounds was junior Russell Benson who earned third overall. Benson started his day with a convincing 17-0 tech. fall before squeaking out a 1-0 decision over Colin Jens of Penn College of Technology. In the quarterfinals, Benson cruised to a 12-0 major decision before dropping a tightly contested, 3-2, decision in the semifinals to Chris Horton of host RIT. That set up a battle of nationally-ranked wrestlers as Benson, a contender at 141 pounds nationally, met fourth-ranked Chris Perry of Trinity. Benson fell into a 2-0 hole in the first period but used an escape to pull with one. Another escape early in the second tied the match at 2-2 going into the third. Early in the final stanza, Perry used an escape to go up one, but Benson fought for a late takedown in the waning seconds to earn the 4-3 victory and third place overall.
First-year Greg Croce took fourth place in the 149-pound bracket as he went 4-2 on the day. Croce won his first three matches by decision before suffering a pin in the semifinals. He battled back with a thrilling sudden-victory decision in the consolation semi-finals but was pinned in the first period of the third-place match to finish fourth overall.
Isaiah Johnson, the Aggies' 197-pounder, impressed with a 4-2 record as he won all four his matches by fall to finish sixth overall.
The DelVal men's wrestlers will take to the mat again in one week at Ursinus College.
