Pioneers Finish 7th at Ithaca Open

The Alfred State wrestling team finished 7th at the two-day Ithaca Open.  The Pioneers scored 33 points in the competition.

For the second straight weekend Matthew Sowers (Whitesboro) led the way.  After falling in his first match at 197, Sowers won four straight matches to earn a spot in the 3rd place match.  He won by injury default of Dan Batchelder (Oswego), pinned John Klein (NYU) in 31 seconds, pinned Joseph Negro (Johnson & Wales in 5:54 and pinned Joshua Bonneau (SUNY Sullivan) in 1:33.  In the 3rd place match he fell to NYU's Dan Brereton.

Codie Nichols (Unatego) finished the 165 lb. brack with a 3-2 record.  He won 9-1 over Sam Friedfeld (NYU) and pinned Mark Gonzalez (Springfield) in 4:05 to advance to the quarterfinals but fell to David Pinto.  He rebounded with a pin of John Fitzsimmons (NYU) before dropping a 5-3 decision in the 5th round of the consolation bracket.

Tyler Aldinger (Alexander) picked up two victories in the 149 lb. brack.  He earned a 10-8 sudden victory over Bryan Sherman (Springfield) in his opening match.  After fall in the quarters, he won a 12-3 major decision over Josue Escobar (Ithaca) before fall in his next match.

Cody Marriott (Fillmore) also picked up two wins in the tourney.  Marriott defeated David Yagy (Norwich) 5-3 and Ben Swanson (Norwich) in consolation matches.

Ithaca College took home the team title for the tournament.

Alfred State is back in action next Saturday when they travel to Oneonta for the Red Dragon Duals.