A strong first-place finish by redshirt senior Matt Mariacher highlighted a weekend of wrestling for the No. 7 Eagles at the Keystone Classic Nov. 20.
With No. 2 Ryan Flores and No. 4 Ganbayar Sanjaa preparing for the NWCA All-Star Classic, the Eagles placed eighth out of 11 teams at the event.
Coming off a sixth-place finish against tough competition at the season-opening Brockport/Oklahoma Invitational in Brockport, N.Y., the Eagles traveled to the University of Pennsylvania to tangle with No. 16 Penn and No. 24 Northwestern University, among others.
The Eagles placed third last year and suited up this season minus Flores, Sanjaa and Daniel Mitchell. AU Head Coach Teague Moore is holding out Mitchell in preparation for upcoming events.
Like at Brockport, Mariacher stepped up and led the team.
Ranked ninth in the country at 141 pounds, Mariacher won his first two rounds via a pin and technical fall.
After defeating Princeton University’s Adam Krop, Mariacher won a tough 4-3 decision for the championship over Jimmy Kirchner from Rider University.
Another exemplary performance for the Eagles came from sophomore heavyweight Blake Herrin, who rose to the occasion and produced a strong third-place finish.
After back-to-back victories in the first two rounds, Herrin lost a close overtime match to Boston University’s Kevin Innis 3-1 before rallying for a 4-2 victory over Rider’s Evan Craig for third place.
AU also received help with a pair of fourth-place finishes from junior Thomas Williams at 125 pounds and sophomore Kevin Tao at 149 pounds.
Tao notched two victories against Penn’s Jordan Michelson and Harvard University’s Paul Liguori, before losing two close 5-4 matches against Nestor Taffur of Boston and Kevin Friedley of Northwestern.
Williams had an up-and-down tournament, starting off with a pin for a win before losing in a tiebreaker to Rider’s Check Zeisloft. He bounced back with three straight pins before losing a 6-5 decision in the 3rd/4th match, again to Zeisloft.
Redshirt junior Thomas Barreiro wrestled his way to a sixth-place finish at 184 pounds. A strong 13-3 major decision over Appalachian State University’s Jesse Johnson was followed by a 7-0 setback to Brown University’s Ophir Bernstein.
Barreiro strung together back-to-back wins in the consolation bracket before dropping his final two matches, ending the tournament with a 9-5 loss to Penn’s Erich Smith in the 5th/6th place match.
Northwestern took home the tournament title with 140 points, and Appalachian State and Rider finished second and third with 97 and 92.5 points, respectively.
AU will next head to Albany, N.Y., Nov. 26 for the Northeast Duals, where Central Michigan University, Purdue University and Penn will provide quality matchups for the Eagles.
