Wrestling | 11/19/2017 4:59:00 PM
ITHACA, NY -- The RIT wrestling team placed tenth out of 23 teams at the 2017 New York State Intercollegiate Wrestling Championships hosted by Cornell University Sunday. The Tigers earned 51.5 team points, as host Cornell won the meet with 183.5 points over Army, who had 121. The meet consisted of teams from Divisions I, II and III.
Several Tigers had strong outings including freshman
Alex Prunoske (Safety Harbor, FL/Clearwater Catholic) at 125 lbs. After a first round bye, Prunoske was defeated by Hunter Howland from Oswego with a fall at 2:27. Prunoske went on to beat Nicholas Conetta from Long Island University with a fall at 5:54 to claim seventh place. Overall, Prunoske went 3-3 with a pair of falls.
Freshman
Kaidon Winters (Athens, PA/Athens Area) placed sixth at 157 lbs., going 5-2 on the day with two falls. He defeated Howie Nolan from Jamestown Community College with a fall at six minutes. Winters was defeated by San Schneider of Ithaca with a fall at 37 seconds in the championship round. He then won four consecutive matches in the wrestle back portion.
Joe Lupisella (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) took seventh place at 174 lbs., going 4-3 on the day with one fall. Lupisella opened the competition with 5-4 decision over Justin Montanez from Merchant Marine Academy. He went on to beat Zachary Schmitt from Farmingdale State with a fall at 4:26 in the quarterfinals. After a loss to Casey Cornell from United States Military Academy Prep School via fall at 4:10. Lupisella took seventh when Donald Donelly had to forfeit due to injury.
Classmate
Matt Cicco (Wheatfield, NY/Niagara-Wheatfield) placed eighth at 197 lbs, posting a win over Timothy Flower from Oneonta State with a fall at 5:38, and Tanner Nielsen of Ithaca.
In addition,
Cole Murphy (Syracuse, NY/Westhill) won a pair of matches at 149 lbs., one by fall and one by major decision.
Andrew Flanagan (Holley, NY/Holley) (125 lbs.),
Andrew Chase (Londonderry, NH/Londonderry) (149 lbs.),
Ezekiel Thomas (Waterford, NY/Albany Academy) (157 lbs.),
Colby Hall (Deposit, NY/Deposit) (165 lbs.) and
Joe Cutugno (Ventnor, NJ/Atlantic City) (184 lbs.) won one match apiece on the day.
RIT returns to action on Saturday, Dec. 2 when the Tigers host the RIT Invitational beginning at 9 a.m. at the Gordon Fieldhouse.
