Hofstra stuns top-ranked Minnesota at Northeast Duals

DATE: 11/25/2006 10:41:00 PM

Guilderland Center, NY

By Jim Sheehan
Sports Information Director
Hofstra University

The Pride won six of 10 matches, including the dramatic, match-clinching 11-8 victory by Chris Weidman at 197 pounds, as #11 Hofstra upset #1 Minnesota, 18-17, at the Journeymen/Brute Northeast Collegiate Duals at Guilderland High School Saturday.

“I am so proud of our guys,” Hofstra’s first year coach Tom Shifflet said. “We knew coming in that it was going to be a close match. I told the team that we had to go out and grab the momentum, and that’s what Dave (Tomasette) and Louie (Ruggirello) did for us with victories. That boosted the whole team’s confidence. Everybody wrestled hard for us and I am so proud of them.”

Tomasette, the junior from Sewell, New Jersey who is ranked 20th in the Intermat preseason poll, opened the match with a hard-fought victory over red-shirt freshman Jayson Ness, 12-9, at 125 pounds. Hofstra freshman Lou Ruggirello boosted the Pride lead to 6-0 with a 5-3 victory over freshman Mike Thorn at 133. Minnesota’s 10th-ranked junior Manny Rivera put the Golden Gophers on the board with a 5-1 victory over Pride junior Charles Griffin, ranked 14th. Minnesota took its first lead of the match, at 8-6 when sophomore Dustin Schlatter, the top-ranked wrestler at 149 pounds, downed Pride senior Mike Parziale by tech fall 17-0.

But the Pride rallied back with three straight victories as 12th ranked senior James Strouse improved to 7-0 on the year with a 4-2 victory at 157 pounds over sixth-ranked junior C.P. Schlatter in the second sudden victory period. Pride senior Mike Patrovich, ranked third at 165 pounds, downed junior Jeremy Larson 8-5, while sophomore Alton Lucas, who entered the season unranked, upset Minnesota’s 12th-ranked junior Gabe Dretsch 5-3, at 174 pounds to boost the Pride lead to 15-8.

But the Golden Gophers’ second-ranked junior Roger Kish downed Hofstra’s fifth-ranked junior Joe Rovelli, 4-1, at 184 pounds to close the deficit to 15-11. With the 285-pound match looming, featuring the top-ranked heavyweight in the country in Minnesota senior Cole Konrad, the 197-pound match was a must-win match for the Pride’s sixth-ranked senior Chris Weidman over Minnesota sophomore Yura Malamura. After taking a 2-0 lead, Weidman struggled with the unranked wrestler and trailed 7-2 entering the third period. But Weidman rallied and scored nine of the next 10 points to post a 11-8 come-from-behind victory that gave Hofstra an insurmountable 18-11 lead. Konrad did pin Pride senior Matt Pollock in 1:48 to close the final margin to 18-17 as the Pride, which defeated second-ranked Lehigh two years ago at the Mack Sports Complex on the Hofstra campus, posted the biggest victory in program history.

The Pride went on to add three more dual victories later in the day as Hofstra defeated American, 33-12, Princeton, 45-6, and Bloomsburg. In the American University match, the Pride won eight of the 10 matches, including tech fall victories by Strouse, Rovelli and Weidman, to cruise to the 33-12 victory. One of the losses was costly as Pride junior Dave Tomasette (125) suffered a leg injury that could cause him to miss the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational next weekend.

Hofstra rolled over Princeton 45-6, losing just one match by forfeit at 125. Ruggirello, freshman Ryan Brown at 141, Weidman and Pollock all recorded wins by fall. The Pride took seven matches in their 27-15 victory over Bloomsburg University in the Northeast Duals finale. Weidman and Patrovich posted wins by fall against Bloomsburg.