College Wrestling - Rider T-2nd at CAAs, Santiago Champion at 165

BOSTON, Mass. - The Rider University wrestling team finished tied for second at the Colonial Athletic Association Championships Saturday, which were held in Boston University’s Case Gymnasium Saturday (March 9). 

The Broncs finished tied with Binghamton and were 13 points behind 2013 champion Hofstra. 

In 10 weight classes, Rider took home the individual championship at 165 and added two second place finishes, two third place finishes and a fourth place finish and the Broncs will advance at least three wrestlers to the NCAA championships in Des Moines, Iowa, March 21-23, Ramon Santiago, Zac Cibula and Donald McNeil. 

Junior Ramon Santiago (Sayreville), the top seed at 165, advanced to the NCAA championship with an 8-2 title match win over third seed Brett Miller from Old Dominion.  Santiago earned a bye into the semifinals and defeated the fourth seed Mitchell Wightman of Boston, 7-5 to setup the title bout.  Santiago entered the championship with a perfect CAA record (6-0) and is 16th ranked in the nation.  Santiago placed third at the CAA championships last year after finishing runner-up in the 157 weight class as a red-shirt freshman.

Senior 157 Zac Cibula (Luxemburg, Wis./Luxemburg Casco), the second seed, won a 14-3 major decision over Binghamton’s Jack McKeever in the quarterfinal.  In the semifinal, Cibula defeated Hofstra’s Tyler Banks, TB 2-1 to advance to finals where he lost top seed Nestor Taffur (Boston University) 5-4 in overtime.  Cibula’s season will continue as one of the two automatic qualifiers at 157 for the CAA. 

Sophomore 197 Donald McNeil (Plainville, Mass./Wyoming Seminary) pinned Matthew Meadows of George Mason in 5:41 in the quarterfinals.  Top seed Nathan Schiedel defeated McNeil with a 12-1 major decision in the semifinals.  McNeil advanced in the consolation round with a 12-4 major decision over Hofstra’s Tim Murphy and won the third place match by a 6-0 score over Old Dominion third seed Jacob Henderson.  McNeil won three of four bouts on Saturday and took one of the three CAA automatic qualifiers at 197 for the NCAA tournament.

Freshman 184 Ryan Wolfe (New Castle, Del./Caravel), the top seed, earned a first-round bye to face fourth-seed Brian Sternlieb of Drexel in the semifinals. Wolfe earned a 5-4 decision over Sternlieb before losing in the finals 7-5 in overtime to Binghamton’s Cody Read.

Junior 174 James Brundage (Ossining, N.Y./Ossining), the fourth seed, earned a 13-4 major decision over George Mason’s Seth Robertson in the quarterfinals.  Brundage lost, 5-3, to the top seed Jermaine John from Hofstra.  Brundage advanced though the consolation bout with a 10-7 win over Binghamton’s John Paris and won the third place match over Kyle Czarnecki (Boston University) 12-5 to go 3-1 on the day. 

Sophomore 141 Vinny Fava (Elmwood Park) won his opening bout, 10-5 over fourth seeded Joe Bonaldi from Binghamton.  Old Dominion’s Chris Mecate, the top seed, defeated Fava 6-0 in the semifinal match.  Fava came back to defeat George Mason’s Sahid Kargbo, 4-2, before losing the third place match to Hofstra’s Luke Vaith 8-0.  Fava placed fourth, going 2-2 on the afternoon.

Freshman 125 Patrick Skinner (Freeport, N.Y./Kellenberg) won a 5-3 decision over third seed Jake Goodwin from Drexel in the quarterfinals.  In the semi-final, Skinner lost 17-1 by tech fall to Rob Deutsch, the number two seed from Drexel.  Skinner was pinned in his first consolation match by George Mason’s Rich Carroll-Lavorat at the 6:59 mark. 

Sophomore 133 Jimmy Morris (Northport, NY/St. Anthony’s) was seeded second at the 133. Morris defeated Drexel’s Jordan Heart, 6-2, in the quarterfinal.  Morris lost to third seed Derek Steeley, 7-4, in the semifinals and was then defeated in consolation action, 7-6, by Joshua Harlowe from Boston University.

Freshman 285 Greg Velasco (Union Beach/Keyport) dropped a 4-0 decision to fourth seed Matt Tourdot of Old Dominion. Velasco stayed alive pinning Hofstra’s Zeal McGrew in 2:48, but dropped an 8-2 decision to the second seed, Tyler Deuel of Binghamton.

Third seeded freshman 149 Curt Delia (Mullica Hill/Delsea) lost, 8-2, to Hofstra’s Cody Ruggirello and lost in the consolations to George Mason’s Gregory Flournoy 2-1. 

The CAA will be sending 19 wrestlers to the NCAA Wrestling Championship, including the 10 individual champions from the CAA championship. The other nine bids will be at-large bids and will be made based on the following criteria: head-to-head competition, qualifying event placement, quality wins, results against common opponents, winning percentage, RPI, coaches’ rankings and the number of matches contested at that weight class.

Rider placed seventh as a team at the CAAs in 2011-12.