Bucknell University Athletics
Bucknell University
EIWA Championships
Bucknell Wrestling Program Takes Major Stride Forward with Third-Place Finish, Five NCAA Automatic Qualifiers at EIWA Championships
3/8/2009 8:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 8, 2009
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - The remarkable resurgence of the Bucknell wrestling program continued in a big way this weekend, as a Bison squad made up of only three classes of recruited grapplers finished in a tie for third place at the EIWA Championships at the Palestra. The upstart squad came home with seven placewinners, and five wrestlers have secured automatic berths in the NCAA Championships, with two others up for at-large consideration.
Junior 165-pounder Andy Rendos (Brockway, Pa./Brockway) advanced to his first EIWA final, where he took second place after falling in a close 5-3 match with unbeaten and national No. 1 Mack Lewnes of Cornell. Rendos and fellow co-captain David Marble (Harpursville, N.Y./Harpursville Central) will both be making their third straight trip to the NCAA Championships. Marble qualified by finishing fourth, right on his seed, at 133 pounds.
Junior Shane Riccio (Warren, N.J./Watchung Hills) came in as the No. 6 seed at 174 pounds, and he posted four straight wins in the wrestlebacks to finish in third place and secure his second straight NCAA berth.
Heading to nationals for the first time will be freshman Derek Reber (Lewisburg, Pa./Lewisburg Area), who was third at 125 pounds, and sophomore 149-pounder Kevin LeValley (Hugo, Colo./Limon), who finished sixth in a deep weight class.
Junior 184-pounder David Thompson (West Liberty, Ohio/Graham Local) and sophomore 157-pounder Scott Sechler (Slatington, Pa./Northern Lehigh) both made remarkable runs through the consolation bracket to place fifth and sixth, respectively. Both just missed automatic berths and will now await the selection of the EIWA's at-large spots on Wednesday.
"[Placing third] is quite an accomplishment for our program. In fact, it is unbelievable," said head coach Dan Wirnsberger, who ranks second on Bucknell's all-time wins list with 32. "The last two years we sent three guys to NCAAs, and this year alone we will send nearly as many as the last two combined. To send over half of our team is significant for our program and shows the success we have made in such a short time span. Having seven placewinners is quite an accomplishment as well. Getting to the finals is exciting for Andy. His expectation was to make the finals and to eventually be an All-American. This is one of the steps in reaching that goal."
The five NCAA qualifiers would tie the team record, set in 1989. Of course that was before the program was reclassified as club-varsity following the 2001-02 season. After a four-year hiatus, Bucknell returned to the varsity mats with an all-freshman team in 2006-07 under the direction of Wirnsberger. That squad finished ninth at the EIWA Championships and sent three wrestlers to nationals, and a year later the Bison were eighth at EIWAs with three more national qualifiers. Now, the third-year program has moved up into the top three in the oldest intercollegiate wrestling conference in the nation.
This year's third-place showing is Bucknell's best in a conference championship since the 1994-95 team won the ECWA title in Davis Gym. With seven finalists and four champions, Cornell easily won the EIWA team title with 138 points. Lehigh was second with 103, followed by Bucknell and Penn with 79. Navy was fifth with 70 points.
Seeded No. 2 at 165 pounds, Rendos breezed to the final, winning three bouts by a combined score of 29-2. He downed third-seeded Mike Galante of Lehigh 8-0 in the semifinal. In the championship bout he went up against Cornell's Lewnes, the top-ranked 165-pounder in the nation, who had won his quarterfinal and semifinal matches by fall. It was a 2-2 deadlock after two periods, but Lewnes scored a reversal to go up 4-2. Rendos escaped to make it 4-3 and needed a late takedown to tie (Lewnes had the riding time point), but could not connect. Lewnes improved to 35-0 with the win.
Reber and Marble both entered Sunday's action still alive in the winners bracket, but both fell in the semifinals. Reber, in his very first EIWA tourney, was the third seed at 125 pounds. Coming off a pin of Princeton's Robert Benitez and a 6-2 win over Army's Lance Penhale, Reber lost in the semis by a 10-0 count to No. 2 seed Rollie Peterkin of Penn. Reber then edged John McDonald of Lehigh 3-2 to get into the consolation finals, where he downed Greg Einfrank of Brown 6-2 to claim the bronze medal.
In a rematch of the 2008 133-pound championship match, Marble fell to top-seeded Joe Baker of Navy 8-3 in the semis. Marble got into the consy final with a 6-3 win over Jasen Borshoff of American, then lost 4-2 on a takedown in sudden victory time to third-seeded Matt Fisk of Lehigh.
Riccio won 27 matches in the regular season and was seeded No. 6 at 174 pounds in his quest to repeat as a national qualifier. He dropped a 9-8 decision to No. 3 Scott Griffin of Penn in the quarterfinals, but he won four straight in the consolation bracket to rally back to third place. He edged fourth-seeded Luke Rebertus of Navy to get into the consolation final, where he defended a late shot by No. 5 Alex Caruso of Lehigh and won 3-2.
At 149 pounds, LeValley came in as the No. 6 seed in a weight class that had six automatic NCAA berths. After dropping out of the main draw in the quarterfinals, he won twice in the consolations, including a pin of Princeton's Daniel Kolodzik. LeValley was one win away from gaining a spot in the third-place match, but lost 3-1 in sudden victory time to Kyle Borshoff of American. He dropped another close one, 4-2, to Penn's Cesar Grajales and pocketed a sixth-place medal.
Sechler authored quite a story at 157 pounds. The sophomore came in to the tournament with a 9-13 record and was unseeded in his weight class. Sechler dropped a close 3-1 decision to fifth-seeded Joel Ahern of Navy in the first round, and he was in deep trouble in his first consolation bracket match against Sean Bilodeau of Lehigh. Sechler trailed 13-5 in that bout before pinning Bilodeau in the second period. That would be the first of three straight wins, including a 5-4 upset of sixth-seeded Marty Everin of Princeton and a 3-1 win over Brown's Bryan Tracy that came on a last-second takedown. Sechler ended up taking sixth, the only unseeded wrestler to place at 157.
At 184 pounds, Thompson came in as the No. 5 seed in a weight class with four automatic bids. A 4-3 decision over Eddie Ebewo of East Stroudsburg brought Thompson within one win of the top four, but he ran into second-seeded Louis Caputo in the consolation semifinal and fell 12-1. Caputo is the only top-two seed in the entire meet not to make it to the finals. Thompson then came back to score a 5-1 win over fourth-seeded Casey Caldwell of Navy to secure fifth place, and he will be under consideration for an NCAA at-large spot later this week.
Riccio and Reber both joined the exclusive 30-win club. Riccio now has 32 wins this season and Reber 31, just off the school record of 33 set by Brian Pitzer in 1998-99. LeValley and Rendos are up to 28 wins, while Marble has 27 this season.
The NCAA Championships will be contested in St. Louis on March 19-21.
