Brackets
Grantham, PA – The Messiah wrestling team won the team title of Petrofes Invitational Champions by scoring 209 points and having 15 wrestlers place.
Lucas Malmberg (125),
Hunter Harris (133),
Larry Cannon (165),
Ben Swarr (174), and
Derek Beitz (184) all finished first place in their divisions. Messiah had three second place finishes by
Jeff Hojnacki (157),
Tag Wilber (165) and
Kyle Koser (184).
Stephen Maloney (149) and
Victor DeFrance (184) placed third overall,
Sean Reddington (125) placed fourth,
Karrington Washington placed fifth,
Lee Cassel (141) and
Adam Peris (149) placed sixth and
Will Korzeniewski placed seventh overall.
Day Two:
Lucas Malmberg (125) won the championship match by a major decision of 12-4 over Guesseppe Rea from Wilkes. Malmberg was also named Most Outstanding Wrestler at the Messiah-Petrofes Invitational voted on by all the head coaches at the meet.
Hunter Harris (133) was the next Falcon to go undefeated during the tournament, he pinned Pankil Chandler (Wilkes) at 6:17 to win.
Larry Cannon scored 24 points for Messiah and finished in first place, he defeated Falcon
Tag Wilber in the championship match 10-4. Cannon picked up his 100th collegiate win by defeating Anthony Cote (Bridgewater St.) 2-0 in the semifinal bout. Wilber had an outstanding semifinal match against Keith Stednitz (Alderson Broaddus); he defeated Stednitz by pinning him with 3:34 on the clock.
Ben Swarr had another great day, after not letting an opponent score a point on him in day one of the invitational, he went on to win the 174-weight class by a 3-2 decision over a very talented Geovanni Medina (Springfield).
Derek Beitz went undefeated as well during the meet and in both of Beitz's matches on Saturday he won by pinning his opponent. In the semifinals, Beitz defeated Isaiah Watson-Kirksey (Mount Union) and in the championship match he pinned Severianel Burgos from Springfield in 0:54 seconds.
Jeff Hojnacki (157) competed very well for Messiah during the weekend, he went undefeated until the championship match where he received an injury that would prevent him from continuing. Gettysburg's Colin Kowalski finished first overall in the 157-division.
Kyle Koser (184) also finished second place at the invitational, due to an unfortunate injury default in the championship match against Kacee Hutchinson (Greensboro). Koser had an outstanding semifinal bout by pinning Gettysburg's Camden Stoops 0:45 seconds into the match.
In the 184-weight division,
Victor DeFrance placed third and
Karrington Washington placed fifth. DeFrance defeated Washington in the consolation semifinal by a decision of 3-2 to move on to compete for third place.
Sean Reddington (125) finished in fourth place after dropping the third place match to Nick Nancini from Mount Union.
In the 149-weight class,
Adam Peris won consolation round No. 5 by defeating fellow Falcon
Will Korzeniewski, to move onto the consolation semifinals. In the semifinals, Peris faced off against another teammate,
Stephen Maloney, where Maloney defeated him 5-0. Maloney then went on and placed third by defeating Zachary Wilson (Greensboro) 11-4. Peris finished sixth and Korzeniewski finished seventh overall. After losing in the semifinal match in the morning,
Lee Cassel (141) performed well in the consolation bracket and finished sixth overall.
Final Team Scores:
| 1. |
Messiah |
209.0 |
| 2. |
Gettysburg |
131.5 |
| 3. |
Mount Union |
130.0 |
| 4. |
Wilkes |
130.0 |
| 5. |
Springfield |
108.5 |
| 6. |
Greensboro |
72.0 |
| 7. |
Ursinus |
72.0 |
| 8. |
West Virginia Tech |
69.0 |
| 9. |
Alderson Broaddus |
56.0 |
| 10. |
Muhlenberg |
53.0 |
| 11. |
McDaniel |
48.5 |
| 12. |
Bridgewater State |
36.5 |
| 13. |
Bergen CC |
13.0 |
| 14. |
Thaddeus Stevens |
7.0 |
Day One
Eleven of the Falcons will move on and compete in the semifinals on Saturday morning.
Lucas Malmberg (125) had a great showing Friday afternoon and defeated Paul Gonzales by a technical fall (22-5) in the quarterfinals.
Hunter Harris (133) won his quarterfinal round against Alderson Broaddus' Cody Buchanan by a major decision of 13-2.
Lee Cassel (141) had a close match-up against Colin Devlin from Gettysburg, but was able to pull out the 6-4 win.
Stephen Maloney (149) proved to be dominant in his weight class by winning all three of his rounds by pins; in the quarterfinals he defeated Mount Union's Austin Rush (fall 0:52). In the next weight class,
Jeff Hojnacki (157) won his quarterfinal match by a technical fall (25-7) over Robert Lamb (Muhlenberg).
Larry Cannon and
Tag Wilber both move on as top contenders in the 165-weight class. Cannon had a tough battle against Wilkes' Michael Paskas in the quarterfinals, but was able to defeat him 8-4 and will face Anthony Cote (Bridgewater St.) in the semifinals. Wilber took down Aarin Feliz (Springfield) and won by a technical fall (18-2).
Ben Swarr (174) had a very impressive day and did not let any opponent score a point against him in his three bouts. He won round one by a technical fall (18-0), round two by a 4-0 decision, and in his quarterfinal match he won by a technical fall (17-0) over Ronald Wuest (McDaniel).
Derek Beitz and
Victor DeFrance both demonstrated great success in the 184-weight class on day one of the Petrofes. Beitz won off of Dean Edmond's (Ursinus) disqualification and DeFrance won by a 14-5 major decision over Antony Risley (Mount Union).
Kyle Koser (197) will be the last Falcon moving onto the semfinals on Saturday. Koser won the quarterfinal match due to a medical forfeit over Gennaro Cerminara (Muhlenberg).
In the consolation round, Messiah has four Falcons still looking to compete in day two.
Sean Reddington (125), lost in the quarterfinal match, but won round four in the consolation bracket by an 11-2 decision over Brandon Miller (Ursinus).
Adam Peris (149) moves on to the fifth round after winning by fall over Wilkes' Jake Dimarsico (0:51).
Will Korzeniewski (149) also won in the fifth round by a major decision (21-12) over Ben Peck (Muhlenberg).
Karrington Washington (184) won round four by forfeit over Deon Edmond (Ursinus).
The Falcons will be back in action on Dec. 7 at Shippensburg University.
