COLLEGE UPDATE FOR NOV. 28: JOURNEYEMEN / BRUTE Northeast Duals shuffle rankings, and Minnesota v Iowa State looms
Jason Bryant InterMat
11/28/2007

 

By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

Highly ranked teams might want to reconsider going to the Journeymen/Brute Northeast Duals.

Why? Strange things seem to happen. On second thought, highly-ranked teams should highly consider going to the Northeast Duals because it’s a quality event and sometimes it’s a learning experience to get a good scare even a month after Halloween.

Last year, that scare ended up a nightmare as Minnesota fell to Hofstra. This year, it was Maryland’s turn to spook an opponent. Pat Santoro’s Terps continued the tradition by picking off fifth-ranked Michigan in the day’s biggest upset.

There were a few other upsets of note, but only individually. Scott Ervin of Appalachian State was fresh off a tournament title at the Keystone. He lost twice. Bucknell’s Dave Marble was beaten by Chris Diehl of Michigan, while Steve Bell of Maryland got a dose of the upset elixir by Central Michigan’s Conor Beebe.

Oh, you mean “those” upsets.

There’s a new No. 1 at 133 pounds and he’s from Hofstra. It’s only the third week of the season and already Lou Ruggirello’s gotten a ton of ink. First there was the win over Tyler McCormick a few weeks back. Then the All-Star invitation and a chance to face Coleman Scott. Well, Scott pulled out and then it was a chance to wrestle Mack Reiter. Ruggirello passed that test and then, five days later, got his chance at Scott and came away with a 3-2 victory, scoring two escapes and a third point on a penalty point.

Thing is, if it weren’t for the win over Scott, Ruggirello would still be behind Reiter, because the All-Star Classic bouts are not official matches recognized by the NCAA and of course, cannot be counted for ranking or seeding purposes – a standard only the NWCA rankings follow.

Rarely does someone finish 0-2 at the NCAA championships in March and then so quickly earn the No. 1 ranking – this actually only after five dual meets. It’s not even December yet, don’t go beating everyone so soon.

Oh, that dual got better too. In all, Hofstra wrestlers beat three returning All-Americans … and lost the dual 20-16. Jared Rosholt’s punishing decision over James Guerin finished off the Pride, but redshirt freshmen Cody Hill (184) and Quinten Fuentes (149) gave the Cowboys much-needed wins – as did transfer Jake Dieffenbach.

Back to Maryland. The matches went down the line, nothing seemed out of the ordinary until Josh Haines upset third-ranked Tyrel Todd of Michigan and then Hudson Taylor followed with a quick fall over Anthony Biondo to make things interesting. At heavyweight, undersized Pat Gilmore won a wild 17-11 match over Michigan’s Matt Guhn to ice the dual.

Other notables from the Northeast Duals:
• Central Michigan lost four matches in four duals, going 36-4 on the day. They didn’t yield an offensive point in their 39-0 victory over Lehigh.
• Oklahoma State wrestled two duals against former Cowboy wrestlers. John Smith’s quad topped Teague Moore’s Clarion team 38-6 and Pat Popolizio’s Binghamton squad 47-3.
• American International was the only non-Division I team in the event. Coach Chaz Seibert’s team took a thumping, falling to Clarion 56-0 and Binghamton 42-6.