Pioneers Finish 7th at Empire Wrestling Championships

Codie Nichols (Unatego) finished 3rd at 157 lbs and Conner Fox (Midlakes) finished 4th at 184 lbs. to lead the Alfred State wrestling team at the Empire Wrestling Conference Championships.  The Pioneers scored 32.5 points to earn 7th place.

Nichols bounced back from an opening round loss to win three matches in the consolation bracket.  He defeated Kevin Thayer 14-2, pinned Frankie Provenzano (Oneonta) in 3:59, and won a 10-0 decision over Michael Falcon (Brockport) in the 3rd place match.

Fox opened up the competition with a pin of Nicholas Coco (Brockport) in 5:57 and then won by medical forfeit over Scott Bova (Oswego) to advance to the semifinals.  After falling to weight class runner up Daniel Glinko, Fox defeated Coco for the second time on the day 8-2 to advance to the 3rd place match.  Fox fell in the 3rd place match to end his day with a 4th place finish.

Josh Lord (Owego Free) was 2-2 ini the 174 lb. weight class.  After falling in his opening match, Lord defeated Sean Maloney (Oswego) 5-3 and Nick Fisk (RIT) 2-1 to adavnce to the 3rd round of the consolation before falling in a decision to Steven Savella (Ithaca) 6-2.

Bryan Mongiello (Washingtonville) defeated Zachary Britton (Lycoming) 2-0 in a consolation match and finished 1-2 at 141 lbs.  Cody Marriott (Fillmore) was 1-2 in the 149 lb. weight class. He pinned Adam Greene (Oneonta) in 29 seconds in a consolation match.

Ithaca won the eight team conference championship with 142.5 points.

The Pioneers will wrestle for the first time at home on Wednesday when they host Penn State DuBois at 7 p.m.