wrestling slays princeton

12 Friday, February 17, 2006
Wrestling Slays Princeton
Rider easily defeats Princeton, splits
a doubleheader
By Paul Mullin
A shutout in any sport, under any
circumstance, is always a welcome and
much celebrated outcome. But when
that shutout comes against one of your
biggest rivals and an Ivy League school
to boot, there just might be a bit more
cause for elation. In a dual meet on Saturday, Feb.
11, Rider University wrestling crushed
Princeton 46-0 after falling to 13th
ranked Cornell 23-12 earlier in the day.
Despite playing a Cornell team that
boasts six wrestlers nationally ranked
in the top 14 of their respective weight
classes, Rider still won four out of the 10
bouts. “I was very pleased with this,” said
Head Coach Gary Taylor. “Cornell is
one of the best teams in the country.” The split improves the Broncs’
record to 10-6-1 overall, while they
remain 5-0-1 in the Colonial Athletic
Association (CAA). One of the more remarkable wins
came when sophomore Zachary Cunliffe
defeated Mike Mormile, the 14th ranked
wrestler in the nation and a two-time
NCAA qualifier. “Beating the No. 14 kid in the
country was a big confidence booster
Photo by Stephanie Nardi
Freshman Michael Kessler struggles against Cornell’s Keith Dickey, but manages to come back and win a tight 5-2 decision. It was Kessler’s second victory of night, after defeating Andrew Sichel of Princeton.
for me,” said Cunliffe. “I am glad to see
that the hard work and dedication I am
putting into the sport is paying off.” Against Princeton, Cunliffe won
again, joining sophomore Mike Palma,
freshman Mike Kessler, and sophomore
Doug Umbehauer as the only Rider
wrestlers to win in both meets. “That was definitely expected,”
Taylor said. “We even expected a couple
more to do it.” But as challenging as it may seem
to wrestle twice in one day, according to
Cunliffe it isn’t so hard after all. “We wrestle in tournaments to start
off the season and usually wrestle up to
four or five times a day,” he said. “I usually feel better and wrestle better after I
get the first match out of the way.” Today and tomorrow, Rider is away
at a pair of dual meets against Boston
University and Sacred Heart, respectively. Both teams are members of the
Broncs’ division, which will make the
matches even tougher and more important. “They are both formidable opponents,” Taylor said. “If we wrestle
with the same intensity we had against
Princeton, we should win them both.” Rider loses footing in thrilling finish vs. Iona
By Paul Szaniawski
In what could have been
arguably the biggest upset all
season, it came down to a questionable call by the referee and
free throws in the final minute against first-place Iona on
Wednesday.
After losing to Siena on
Sunday by 23, though cutting
the lead to 7 in the second
half, the men’s basketball team
bounced back to nearly upset
MAAC leader Iona (13-3), losing 83-79.
“I’m just extremely proud
of our kids after what was the
low of lows on Sunday when it
was easy to pack it up for the
season and then you have the
No. 1 team coming in,” said
Head Coach Tommy Dempsey.
“This season it’s been so easy
for these kids to give in and
they never have.”
The Broncs took the lead
five minutes into the second
half after trailing by as many as
18 in the first. Rider’s lead was
as large as 7 with less than eight
minutes left and they wouldn’t
let Iona get ahead until late
in the matchup. After sophomore Jason Thompson missed
a layup on a fast break oppor-
021706p12.indd 1
single guy in that locker room
expected to win tonight.”
The game then became
a free-throw shooting contest
thanks to outstanding defense
by both teams including a
Thompson block on game-high
-scoring guard Ricky Soliver
with 24 seconds left to keep the
score at 79 a piece.
“It just went Iona’s
way down the stretch,” said
Thompson.
Pierce was then called for a
questionable foul to send Steve
Burtt to the line, who sank
only one free throw with the
game’s pressure and the Broncs’
Zoo fans beating down on
him. With eight seconds left,
Mouton tripped while running
up the court through an Iona
trap, losing the ball and ultimately the game.
“Throughout that game
it probably looked like we
played harder than them,” said
Thompson. “We were making
shots, we were playing together
Photo by Matt Freedman
great basketball with the atmoSenior Edwin Muniz tries to sink a shot over Iona’s Anthony sphere and stuff.”
The game sure looked that
Bruin in the 83-79 loss to the Iona Gaels.
way
to the crowd on hand at
tunity, Anthony Bruin came
“Close is never good enough the Broncs’ Zoo because the
back on the other end and
because we really believe we atmosphere and electricity were
slam-dunked to tie the game
have enough talent to win,” reminiscent of last year’s Zoo.
with 1:51 remaining.
said Dempsey. “I think every The Broncs needed to play their
best balanced game on both
sides of the court to take the
game from Iona and the crowd
recognized it.
Thompson found his niche
against Iona scoring 26 and was
backed up by balanced scoring from Edwin Muniz (12
points), Terrance Mouton (11),
Paul Johnson (9) and freshman
Rodney Pierce who had a career
high of 10 points.
“We need to put the past
behind us and look at this
game, how hard we played, and
pretty much look at much look
at Albany,” said Pierce. “So we
just have to go game by game.
It’s on to the MAAC tournament now.”
After three straight losses
the men’s basketball team is in
last place with a record of 412 in the MAAC. Rider’s near
upset over first place Iona is
evidence the team does have a
great chance to make an upset
in the first round of the tournament, which is slated to start
Friday, March 3 in Albany, New
York.
“Right now it’s a one weekend season in Albany and I
think this went a long way to
proving that we can be a factor,”
said Dempsey.
2/16/06 10:17:37 PM