Results
Collegeville, PA — Perhaps, the sports adage is true:
There's nothing better than the opportunity to compete again.
Messiah made the most of its near immediate chance following a disheartening 28-9 home loss to 15th-ranked Centenary College Friday night, waking up early to take part in the annual North-South Duals at Ursinus College.
And despite leaving campus at 6 a.m., the Falcons put forth their best showings early, knocking off Stevens Tech by a 19-18 score and West Chester University 38-12 before falling to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 28-9 and ninth-ranked The College of New Jersey 27-16.
“I said last night that it was our goal to get back in one piece following today, but we did more than that,” said Bryan Brunk, Messiah head coach. “We had some good showings today and saw some things that we can continue to build on.”
Perhaps there was no greater display of clutch wrestling than in Messiah's initial card with Stevens Tech, as the Falcons found themselves down by a 16-18 score after freshman Ricardo Plummer was pinned by the Ducks' nationally-ranked Ryan Dormann in the 174-pound bout. Down by a 10-15 team score with just three matches remaining, Brunk asked for the big one.
“I looked at (junior) Tim Stewart and said, 'We need a pin,'” Brunk said. “He got it done.”
Stewart took down Stevens Tech's Jason Maiekowski in just 2:32, giving Messiah life in the form of a 16-15 lead. When senior Tim Hopkins dropped a narrow, 4-2 decision to Tech's Vincent Termini, Messiah again trailed — 16-18 — heading into the heavyweight match.
Thankfully, senior Pat Hogan also came up in the biggest of ways, earning a 5-0 victory over the Ducks' Brian Schmalls, icing the team win behind the three-point decision.
Following a rout of West Chester University's club team — Messiah (5-4) won all but one of the event's 10 matches — the team fell flat against Wisconsin-Oshkosh, a team ranked as high as 15th in the nation earlier in the season. Stewart, Plummer and sophomore Ty Kanouff earned the Falcons' points in the defeat, with Plummer capturing a 6-4 decision over the Warhawks' Reid Dickerson in overtime.
“Ricardo showed a lot of heart,” Brunk said.
Against TCNJ — ranked ninth in the latest Brute/Adidas Top 30 Poll — Messiah got another impressive outing from Kanouff, who earned a major decision over the Lions' James Olivo. Senior Mike Bressler also claimed his first decision of the weekend, pinning TCNJ's David Kiley just 1:25 into his match.
Senior Dave Jones (a 6-4 winner at 174) and Hopkins (a 3-2 decision at 197) were Messiah's other winners.
“Ty Kanouff wrestled an awesome match against TCNJ,” Brunk said. “He had a lot of fire and intensity, things he didn't have Friday night (against Centenary). Dave Jones went 2-0 on the day, and it was nice for Mike Bressler to get on the board with a win. He had a tough weekend. To end it on a high note, hopefully he can use this going forward. Wrestling is really about getting in a groove at the right time. Collectively, we're not wrestling as well as I think we can, but there's a lot of time left in the season. We don't want to be peaking right now, but we also don't want to be spiraling out of control.”
Messiah will have another big test upcoming, as the squad will travel to Lycoming College next weekend to take part in the vaunted Bud Whitehill Duals, an event boasting 20 teams. Wrestling is slated to begin at 9 a.m. Friday, and continue through Saturday evening.
