Pride finishes 10th at EIWA Championships

The Hofstra wrestling team finished 10th at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championships at Lehigh University on Friday, March 6 and Saurday, March 7, with one wrestler qualifying for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournament. Ricky Stamm, who finished fifth at 165 pounds, would have made his first appearance at the national tournament this year. 

At 125 pounds, Dylan Ryder got an eighth-place finish. Coming in as the ninth seed, Ryder began with an 11-0 major decision over the eighth seed, Harvard’s Nolan Hellickson. Ryder matched up with the top seed and No. 3 wrestler in the country, Princeton’s Patrick Glory, in the quarterfinals. Glory made easy work of Ryder with a 16-2 major decision. A 9-8 upset of the third seed, the University of Pennsylvania’s Michael Colaiocco, would help Ryder survive another day. On day two, Ryder was shut out 5-0 by Gage Curry of American University to put him in the seventh-place match, where he lost 9-5 after a tie-breaker period to the 14th seed, Drexel’s Antonio Mininno. 

Justin Hoyle was the ninth seed at 133 pounds, but was quickly dispatched with a pin by Angelo Rini of Columbia. Hoyle lasted until five seconds left in the match before being put on his back. His consolation match also resulted in a loss, an 11-6 decision to the sixth seed, Army’s Andrew Wert.

Vinny Vespa didn’t make it out of the first period of his 141-pound match. The 14th seed was pinned 1:55 into his match with the third seed, Columbia’s Matt Kazimir. His season ended at the hands of Franklin and Marshall’s Wilfredo Gil after a 1-0 consolation round defeat.

Reece Heller was the 11th seed at 149 pounds, but his tournament only lasted one day as well. It began with a 10-3 loss to the sixth seed, Bucknell’s Matthew Kolonia, and finished with a 4-3 loss to the 14th seed, Columbia’s Andrew Garr. 

As the tenth seed at 157 pounds, Holden Heller found himself on the losing end of a close 6-5 match with the seventh seed, Bucknell’s Jaden Fisher. He stayed alive with a 10-0 major decision over the 15th seed, TJ Calas of Sacred Heart in the consolation round, but couldn’t make it to day two after a 9-7 defeat at the hands of the 12th seed, Cornell’s Adam Santoro. 

Stamm’s day one didn’t start off on the right foot as the seventh-seeded member of the Pride lost to the tenth-seeded Sacred Heart Pioneer, Brandon Levesque. He battled back, picking up a 4-2 win over the 17th seed, Penn’s Jake Stefanovich, and a 3-1 decision over the fifth seed, Drexel’s Ebed Jarrell, to make it to day two. Stamm won a 6-2 decision over the ninth seed, Milik Dawkins of Cornell, before taking fifth place on a medical forfeit by Princeton’s Grant Cuomo.

Sixth-seeded Sage Heller also placed at 174 pounds for the Pride. On day one, he enjoyed a 22-7 tech fall over the 11th seed, Peter Ferraro of Harvard. He was pinned by the third seed and No. 12 ranked wrestler in the country, Army’s Ben Harvey, in the quarterfinals, but bounced back with a 7-1 win over the ninth seed, Scared Heart’s Joe Accousti, to make it to day two. Sage Heller majored the 12th seed, Penn’s Neil Antrassian, 19-8 before securing a 6-2 victory in the fifth-place match over the eighth seed, Bucknell’s Mitch Hartman.

Tenth-seeded Charles Small began his day at 184 pounds with a 5-3 sudden victory upset over seventh-seeded Kyle Davis of Sacred Heart. Although he was majored 9-0 by the third seed, Lehigh’s Christopher Weiler, Small made it to day two thanks to a 3-2 consolation win over Navy’s Andrew Buckley. On the second day, Small wrestled twice more, getting majored 12-2 by the sixth seed, Travis Stefanik of Princeton, in the consolation round, but bouncing back in the seventh-place match with a 9-2 win over 11th-seeded Kyle Inlander of Bucknell.

Trey Rogers had a rough time as the ninth seed at 197 pounds. Rogers was first pinned at the hands of the eighth seed, Drexel’s Bryan McLaughlin, 3:59 into his first-round match. He was then pinned again, 4:59 into his consolation round match with the third seed, Lehigh’s Jake Jakobsen.

At 285 pounds, the fourth-seeded Zachary Knighton-Ward had a strong first day. He majored the 13th seed, Bucknell’s Brandon Stokes, 8-0 in his first-round match, and then beat Joe Doyle of Binghamton 6-4 to advance to the semifinals the next day. That day, he lost a semi-final matchup with Harvard’s Yaraslau Slavikouski, the top seed in the tournament and the No. 10 ranked wrestler in the nation, 3-1. He then lost 7-2 to Cornell’s Brendan Furman, the seventh seed, in the third-place bout to miss out on the automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. However, it was announced on Tuesday, March 10, that Knighton-Ward had earned an at-large bid to the championships. 

While many wrestlers had their seasons all but ended at the EIWA tournament, Stamm and Knighton-Ward planned to continue theirs in Minnesota beginning on Thursday, March 19. On Thursday, March 12, the NCAA canceled all remaining winter and spring championships due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics