Hofstra freshmen have strong showing at Edinboro Open

The Hofstra University wrestling team traveled to Pennsylvania to participate in the Edinboro Open on Saturday, Feb. 3. The team’s freshmen once again impressed crowds, leading the Pride to 13 of their 15 total victories on the day.

It was once again the Noah Tapia show, as the freshman went 4-1 in his bouts on the day, not counting a no-contest he received due to NCAA-imposed match limits. After losing his first bout to unattached Edinboro University’s Amonn Ohl, Tapia won his final four matches, placing sixth in the 149-pound weight class. Tapia defeated unattached Jack Marlow and Jack Pletcher, both from the University of Pittsburgh, as well as unattached Central Michigan University’s Louden Stradling and West Virginia University’s Michael Dolan. His performance on Saturday improved his record to 15-10 this season.

Frank Volpe had a very impressive showing as well, going 3-2 and reaching the quarterfinals of the 157-pound weight class, winning matches over Edinboro’s Steffan Lynch who wrestled unattached and Cleveland State University’s Andrew Parish. Volpe defeated Cleveland State’s Nick Abounader in the consolation bracket. Volpe fell to Nassau Community College’s Kris Ketchum in the quarterfinals and unattached Edinboro’s Matthew Leehan in his final consolation match. These were Volpe’s first official collegiate victories, as he wrestled unaffiliated at prior tournaments. Volpe’s official season record is now 3-5.

Redshirt freshman Alex Turley made the quarterfinals as well for the 141-pound weight class. Turley’s total record was 2-2 on the day, winning his first two matches before dropping his quarterfinal match and his consolation bout. Turley won over unattached wrestlers Chase McLaughlin and Ryan Aquilani from Gannon and Kent State University, respectively. His losses were to the University of Maryland’s Dario Lemus and Binghamton University’s Ivan Garcia who were both unattached. Turley now sits at 6-15 on the season.

No other Hofstra wrestlers managed to win more than one match on Saturday, but Jake Slotnick, Greyson Harris, Eric Shindel, Will Conlon, Gavin Proffitt and Nikolas Miller each took home a win. Shindel and Miller were the only non-freshmen to win a match. Conlon entered his 184-pound bracket as the fourth seed and Proffitt was the fifth seed in the 197-pound bracket.

The Pride as a team finished the day with a 15-27 record. Hofstra will return home on Friday, Feb. 9, to host Binghamton at 6 p.m. at the David S. Mack Physical Education Center. This marks their final home dual meet of the season, as the team will honor their seniors with senior night festivities before the beginning of the match.

Photo courtesy of Hofstra Athletics/Alexis Friedman