From NYU Wrestling
The New York University wrestling team completed its season-opening competition at the Ithaca College Invitational on Saturday afternoon, November 7, in Ithaca, NY.
NYU placed fourth (97.5) out of 12 teams, just behind third-place Springfield College (111.5). Invitational host Ithaca won with 163.0 points, while the Stevens Institute of Technology came in second at 137.5.
"As a team, we started the tournament really slowly and lost some matches we shouldn't have. We picked it up a bit on the second day, and our guys did a really good job to recover," said NYU Senior Assistant Coach Corey Luce. "I think our goal for the rest of the season is to improve each and every weekend. It's not how you start, it's how you finish."
Individually, the squad was led by returning All-American Nathan Pike, who earned the Invitational'sMost Outstanding Wrestler honors. The junior 133-pounder posted a pair of technical-fall victories on Friday before winning all three of his matches -- one by technical fall, one by major decision and the title match by fall -- en route to a first-place finish in his weight class.
"Nathan's goal is to win a national title and he demonstrated that he's on pace for that by tearing through some really good competition in a tough weight class," continued Luce.
Raymond Jazikoff also faired well for NYU. The sophomore 157-pounder went 3-1 overall on the weekend, including a 2-1 performance on Saturday to finish as the runner-up. Jazikoff picked up three-straight victories before falling to Eamonn Gaffney of Ithaca in the championship match 7-6 by just two seconds of riding time.
"Ray's right there with the top competition in the country. He just has to tweak a few things here and there and he'll find himself on the right side of those matches in the future," said Luce.
HIGHLIGHTS:
- John Messinger fell in his quarterfinal match to start the day, but won four straight on the consolation side of the bracket to place third at 174 pounds. The junior captain finished with a 5-1 overall record with one fall, one technical fall and three decisions.
- Wayne Yuan spilt his matches on Saturday and went 3-2 overall to place fourth at 125 pounds.
"Wayne had a really good weekend, as well, and almost beat a really tough, highly-ranked wrestler to just miss out on a third-place finish," Luce said.
- Kyzen Smith wrestled all four of his matches on Saturday and went 2-2 to place fifth at 184 pounds.Gaaret Marinelli advanced to the 184-pound fifth-place match, as well, but conceded to Smith via a medical forfeit.
- Rookie Ian Burke had a nice debut for NYU and placed sixth at 149 pounds. He totaled a 5-3 record over the weekend, including two wins by fall.
"Burke's one of the toughest kids I've ever coached. He's battled through injuries and then went against probably the tournament's toughest weight class to win five of his eight matches," said Luce. "He had a chance to win every match. He's going to progess, He's exciting to watch and he puts a lot of points on the board."