Hofstra wrestlers earn big wins at Journeymen Classic

On Sunday, Nov. 12, the Hofstra University wrestling team competed at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. Members of the Pride wrestled in round-robin style brackets with Dylan Ryder and Keaton Kluever each beating ranked opponents.

Kluever, a transfer from the University of Minnesota, had an extremely impressive day in the 285-pound weight class, winning all three of his matches by pins. He started his day by pinning North Carolina State University’s Chase Horne in the second period. Following that, Kluever caught Lucas Stoddard of Army West Point on his back just over a minute into the match for the win. In his last match of the day, Kluever faced off against No. 11 Lewis Fernandes of Cornell University. Kluever made quick work of Fernandes, using an overhook and an underhook to throw him straight to his back just 43 seconds into the match.

At 125 pounds, Dylan Ryder, who returned to the Pride after two seasons off, also had a successful day, beating No. 20 Robert Howard of Pennsylvania State University in his second match. Howard earned the first takedown of the match, but when he went for a second takedown, Ryder used a wizzer to lock hands and roll through for a tilt, earning himself seven points in the exchange. Ryder continued to work, earning another takedown in the second period to win 13-3. Ryder also beat Ashton Jackson of Purdue University earlier in the day, 13-2.

Along with Kluever, Jurius Clark and Joe McGinty also won all their matches. At 157 pounds, Clark beat Zach Karagias and Aaron Faison of North Carolina State University 9-4 and 6-0 respectively before facing Will Morrow of Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. An escape and a takedown in the second period allowed Clark to win 5-3 over Morrow. As for McGinty, at 165 pounds, he beat Caden Dobbins of Bloomsburg in a close match, 2-0, before pinning Nico Bogardus of Sacred Heart University a little over five minutes into the match. McGinty ended his day with a 4-2 win over Tanner Craig of Army West Point.

At 141 pounds, sophomore Alex Turley had a set of wins with a fall over Thomas Volpe of Sacred Heart just nearly two minutes into the match and an 8-1 decision over Noah Tocaben of Long Island University (LIU). Freshman Jake Slotnick earned two wins at 165 pounds, pinning David Rozenblum of Sacred Heart University at 2:57 and beating Noah Bash of Franklin & Marshall College 7-3.

Team captain Ross McFarland had a strong performance at 174 pounds with a 9-0 win over Orlando Cruz of Purdue University and a 3-0 win against Luke Rada of Harvard College. McFarland’s one loss was to the University of Pennsylvania’s No. 14 Nick Incontrera. Last season, Incontrera bested McFarland just 4-3 at the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association championships. After earning the only takedown of the match early in the first period, Incontrera won again, 5-1.

At 184 pounds, freshman Will Conlon secured two wins, including a 13-0 win over Luke Isaac of Arizona State University. Conlon’s second win was hard-fought over LIU’s Anthony D’Alesio. The two went into overtime with Conlon winning by tie-breaking criteria when he got an escape. At 197 pounds, Nikolas Miller had two dominant matches, beating John Dusza of LIU and Thomas Godbee of Army West Point, both by technical fall, 18-3 and 20-4 respectively.

As for the rest of the team, Justin Hoyle, Noah Tapia and Matthew Waddell each earned a win, while Eric Shindel and Adrian Sans both went 0-3.

The Pride will compete in their first dual meet of the season at home in the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex against Ohio State University on Sunday, Nov. 19.

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Alexis Friedman