The Boston University wrestling team opened the 2002-03 campaign with an impressive showing at the Bearcat Open hosted by the State University of New York at Binghamton on Saturday.
Five Terriers reached the semifinals in the tournament, which featured more than 265 wrestlers from 17 schools, including Colonial Athletic Conference rivals Hofstra University, Drexel University, Sacred Heart University and Binghamton.
Although the tournament was not scored, BU Coach Carl Adams figured the Terriers would have finished as one of the top three schools if points were given.
‘We wrestled pretty well,’ Adams said. ‘I feel good about the fact that we had five kids in the semifinals.’
BU was led by junior Leighton Brady, who placed third in the 165-weight class.
Brady, the fourth seed in the class, lost a tightly contested bout with No. 1 Noel Thompson of Hofstra, who is the nation’s 10th ranked wrestler at 165. According to Adams, Brady did an ‘exceptional job’ in the tournament.
Sophomore Courtney Howard finished third in the heavyweight division after winning the consolation match, 12-10. The third seed, Howard, finished the weekend with a 4-1 record.
Three Terriers finished in fourth place, including sophomore Joey Rivera at 133 pounds, senior Jason Holder at 149 and senior Ed Strauss at 184. Rounding out BU’s top six finishers were junior Ben Schilens who finished fifth at 174 and sophomore Rayes Gonzales at 157. Senior Jose Leon finished in second place at 133, however, he wrestled unattached from BU due to red-shirting this season.
Adams was also pleased with the performance of several freshmen who, despite not finishing in the top six, wrestled well at the tournament. Justin Blumenthal opened his collegiate career with wins over the second and third seeds in the 141-weight class.
‘Justin did a really, really good job this weekend,’ Adams said.
Freshman Mike Galorenzo went 3-2 at 125 pounds on Saturday, while fellow freshman Tom Sforza finished 1-2 on the weekend. Sforza wrestled well against unattached second seed Paul Siemon, a national qualifier last season, before falling, 5-3. Freshman Zak Johns also performed well at 149, with an even 2-2 record.
‘I’m pretty pleased [with the way the team wrestled]’ Adams said.
The competitive tournament was a great way for the Terriers to start the season because it showed athletes and coaches what things need to be improved, Adams said.
‘The good thing about a tournament that tough is that when you lose a match, your weaknesses show up,’ Adams said. ‘That’s our job as coaches, to work on those weaknesses.
‘We still have to work on areas,’ Adams said. ‘We need to work on conditioning, strength. You never get to the point where you are there.’
BU next hits the mat at the University of Pennsylvania’s Keystone Tournament on Nov. 24. The Terriers then head back to Binghamton on Dec. 6 before opening their home schedule against conference power Hofstra University on Dec. 12.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
