The Elizabethtown College men’s wrestling team had three players advance to the quarterfinal matches when they traveled to Collegeville, Pa. for the Ursinus Fall Brawl Saturday, Nov. 8. The three wrestlers included first-year Philip Torresani (125), senior Zeke Zimmer (174) and sophomore Luke Fernandez (184).
Other notable performances came from first-year Chris Kummerer (149), who had the most wins for the team with four, and senior Jared Weaver (197), who had three wins.
After having a first round bye, Torresani worked hard for his first win against John Cassels from West Chester University in a 4-2 decision. However, he suffered a first round pin to Delaware Valley College’s Connor Kirkegard at 1:35.
“I think I did a very good job at hand fighting and moving my opponents around,” Torresani said. “I need to work on my set ups this week and taking my shots when they are there.”
After the loss, Torresani was not done as he was able to reach the consolation semifinals. He pinned Mike Garone from Western New England College at 3:38 and received a 5-3 decision over Chris Tan from Ursinus College. This put Torresani in a position to rematch Ursinus’ Austin Petril, whom he faced at Messiah the previous week. Petril defeated Torresani, in a once again close match, 7-4.
“I was very happy with my performance in the Fall Brawl,” Torresani said. “I had a positive record of 3-2, which was my goal for the weekend. I felt that my endurance was vital to my success this weekend. One thing I could have done better was be more aggressive and take more shots.”
Zimmer, who was the only wrestler to make it to the semifinals the previous week, reached the quarterfinals this time by having a first round bye and a 4-2 decision over Gettysburg College’s Tyler Cunningham. He fell in the quarterfinals to Jeric Kasunic, of Division I American University, who pinned him in 1:27. Zimmer battled his way to a total of three wins before ending the day in the consolation semifinals.
The Fall Brawl was Fernandez’s first action of the 2014-2015 season, and he opened it with two back-to-back decision wins. He battled for a 9-4 victory over Camden Stoops from Gettysburg in the first round and then won 3-1 in his second match with Jake Pooton of McDaniel College. He lost by a point in a tough quarterfinal match against The College of New Jersey’s Dan Wojtaszek on a 6-5 decision.
“I stayed in good position while hand fighting and while moving my opponent,” Fernandez said. “I have to open up my offense and take my shots when the opportunity is there. I can’t afford to not score when I shoot, so that’s going to be my main point of emphasis in practice this week.”
Weaver had to handle tough competition in his first match of the day as he came up against American’s Brett Dempsey who came away with a 7-2 win. However, Weaver responded to the defeat with perseverance, winning two decision wins and pinning the College of New Jersey’s Stephen Boncimino in 52 seconds to reach the consolation quarterfinals.
On Saturday, Kummerer had the most wins for the Blue Jays with a record of 4-2, which included a huge 17-0 shutout against McDaniel’s Manuel Miranda in his first round match. Then, he earned a 15-2 decision against Sean McAllister from Western New England.
Juniors Chad Lammer (141) and Tim Miranda (133) also had two wins at the Fall Brawl. Lammer won two consecutive decision face-offs in the consolation matches, and Miranda pinned Delaware Valley’s Ronald Dingle in 1:32.
The Blue Jays start their dual season Wednesday, Nov. 12 when they host Gettysburg at 7:30 p.m.
