Wrestling | 2/21/2009 8:48:00 PM
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OSWEGO, NY - The RIT wrestling team placed fifth out of eight teams at the 2009 Empire Wrestling Championships hosted by SUNY Oswego on Saturday. Senior #
Luke Baum (Ontario, NY/Wayne)# (Ontario, NY/Wayne) and junior
#Mike McInally (Bergen, NY/Byron-Bergen)# (Bergen, NY/Byron-Bergen) qualified for the NCAA Championship Tournament, each for the third straight year.
The individual champions in ten weight classes, plus five “wild card” entries, will automatically qualify for the NCAA Meet, which will take place on March 6-7 in Cedar Rapids, IA.
Baum was named the meet's Most Outstanding Wrestler. He opened the day by defeating Alex DeHart of Messiah, 7-3 in the quarterfinals and then upended Stephen Perez of SUNY Cortland, 7-0 to move to the final at 141 lbs.. He ended the day by defeating Derrick Smith of SUNY Oswego, 11-3 in the championship match at 141 lbs. Baum improved to 38-7 this season, tying his own school record for wins in a season.
McInally also qualified, despite losing his first match of the season in the championship bout. He fell to Seth Ecker of Ithaca, 3-1 in the finals at 125 lbs. Earlier in the day, he defeated Scott McGregor of SUNY Oswego via technical fall, 17-1, and advanced to the final after romping Danny Lethbridge of Messiah College, 15-0 to earn his second technical fall win. McInally defeated Peppy Cabrera of Cortland in the second place wrestle-back match to earn his 100th collegiate victory, McInally, ranked third in Division III and is 32-1 this season and 100-18 all-time at RIT.
Junior #Jason Wake (Delhi, NY/Delaware Academy)# (Delhi, NY/Delaware Academy) finished second at 165 lbs. He defeated Will Brodfuehrer of SUNY Cortland, 8-1 and David Jones of Messiah, 3-0. Wake lost to Chris Dalheimer of Lycoming in the final, but beat Jones in the second place wrestle-back to finish 31-8 this season.
