While you were out cruising the Caribbean, carving up the slopes or doing anything except going to class, the Boston University wrestling team was hard at work. Over this winter break, the Matdogs saw it all, from a shellacking by a top 10 powerhouse to a drubbing of a bottom-feeder.
The first match on Dec. 12 pitted the Terriers against the Pride of Hofstra University, the top team in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). Since that time, the Pride has broken into the top 10 in the nation.
‘They were 17th in the country when we wrestled them, and they have nine nationally ranked kids,’ said BU coach Carl Adams. ‘We still wrestled really well.’
The Matdogs’ bold performance was not enough, however, to knock off the team to beat in the CAA. Despite some close battles and standout performances, Hofstra prevailed 31-12.
Three BU grapplers looked good against the Pride’s top-notch competition. Junior Leighton Brady took Noel Thompson, the fourth-ranked 165-pounder in the country, to overtime before falling by decision. Freshman Justin Blumenthal also took his match to overtime before falling to Hofstra’s Matt Homenick at 141 pounds. The best Terrier performance came from sophomore Rayes Gonzales, who pinned Mike Patrovich in the 157 pound weight class.
The Hofstra loss took the Terriers into Christmas break, but a few elite BU wrestlers were back in action on Dec. 30, in both the Wilkes Open and the Midland Championship.
Gonzales, along with senior captain Jason Holder, traveled to Wilkes-Barre, Pa. for the Wilkes Open. Both were very successful, as Holder posted a 6-1 record at 149 pounds to finish third in the tournament, while Gonzales was right behind at fourth with a 6-2 record at 157 pounds.
Two more BU wrestlers took to the mats in Evanston, Ill., facing the stiffest competition of all at the Midland Championship.
‘It is even tougher than the national tournament because it is an open tournament,’ Adams said. ‘You see some world class amateur wrestlers.’
Jose Leon, a senior redshirting this season, had a great tournament, going 4-2 at 125 pounds. Brady upped his stock to No. 17 in the nation at 165 pounds, winning twice and losing twice.
‘Lee also wrestled very well,’ Adams said. ‘He lost two one-point matches to the number four and number five kids in the country.’
After facing such stiff competition, it was undoubtedly wonderful to return to the friendly confines of Case Gymnasium to face Wagner University on Jan. 10, which Adams called ‘one of the weaker teams in the conference.’
The scoreboard showed this discrepancy, as the Terriers romped 44-3. Holder, Gonzales, Brady, senior Ed Strauss (184 pounds) and sophomore Courtney Howard (heavyweight) all pinned their opponents in the blowout, taking care of business against Wagner.
The Matdogs finished their winter break campaign Jan. 11 with a 21-18 triumph over Sacred Heart University, upping their record to 4-1 (3-1 CAA).
‘This was a scary match to go into because they have a very good team this year,’ Adams said. ‘On paper, they were supposed to beat us.’
Thanks to pins by freshman Mike Galorenzo at 125 pounds and Strauss at 184 pounds, the Terriers proved ‘the paper’ wrong, and showed why they play the game. BU pulled off the upset, stymieing a return to Boston for two transfers.
Mike Messina and Mark Laramee both are former Terrier wrestlers who now grapple for Sacred Heart, so the trip back to Case had to have sentimental value. Laramee was defeated by Holder, adding a chapter to their developing rivalry, while Messina was able to knock off BU’s Blumenthal in overtime.
With Sacred Heart behind them, the BU wrestlers now look ahead to the heart of the CAA schedule, which starts on Jan. 24 against Old Dominion University. First however, the Terriers have to get past Springfield College tonight at Case Gym and Brown University on Saturday in Rhode Island. According to Adams, both will be very challenging meets for his team.
‘I feel real good, [sophomore 125-pounder] Joey Rivera will be back for the Springfield match, and I feel very good about the way we’ve been wrestling,’ Adams said. ‘If we have a little luck with our health, we should be in good shape.’
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.
