2010 Centennial Conference Wrestling Championship
GETTYSBURG, Pa. – The Gettysburg College wrestling team has won individual titles in five of the last six Centennial Conference Championships with many of those wrestlers going in as title favorites. None of the Bullets will be leading candidates to win a title at Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday, Feb. 20, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the ability to make a run at a spot on the podium.
Gettysburg has crowned a conference champion in each of the last four years, with 2009 graduate Andrew Goldstein grabbing three titles (2007-08-09). Half of the Bullets’ projected lineup will be wrestling at the championship meet for the first time and only juniors
Bobby Christopher (Fort Lauderdale, Fla./Cardinal Gibbons) and
DJ Neri (Fairfax Station, Va./W.T. Woodson) have been to more than one conference tournament.
“It’s a young squad, but it’s gotten a lot of experience throughout the year,” said third-year mentor Andy Vogel. “This will be the first championship experience for a lot of these guys. How they respond to that will make a big difference in our standing.”
Among those competing for the first time are freshmen
Joe Fiore (Hicksville, N.Y./Kellenberg Memorial) and
Marshall Puls (New York, N.Y./Hotchkiss), sophomore
Matt Danielson (Bethesda, Md./Bullis School), and junior
Luke Mitchell (Garden City, N.Y./Garden City).
Fiore, Mitchell, and Puls have emerged as reliable starters for Gettysburg at 157, 184, and 197, respectively. Fiore has won eight bouts at his weight class, while Mitchell and Puls have hovered around the .500 mark all season. Danielson has been hampered by injuries in his opening two years, but he is more than capable of beating a higher-seeded opponent at 141.
“We have a number of guys, depending on the draw and how they wrestle, that can get to the podium and place in the top four,” said Vogel. “I think any one of our upper weights has a chance to do that. It comes down to who has a good day. A lot of guys are close. It’s such a short match you have to be ready to go when you put your foot on the line.”
Senior
Patrick Doherty (Garden City, N.Y./Chaminade) and sophomore
Michael Slabinski (Alexandria, Va./St. Stephen’s & St. Agnes) have each competed in one CC Championship. Doherty was ousted in his only two bouts at 165 in 2008, while Slabinski was 0-2 at last season’s event. Doherty has been curtailed in his final campaign because of injuries, but he has proven in the past he is capable of putting up wins in bunches.
“He understands this is probably it for him,” noted Vogel. “He’s had a good career for us. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can go out there and accomplish this year. He’s going to be a bad draw for someone in this tournament and he could turn some heads.”
Another wrestler that could pull off an upset is Neri at 174. The junior is having his finest season in orange and blue with more wins this season (14) than his first two combined (13). Only one of his five career CC Championship matches has been decided by more than five points and he earned a victory in his opening bout last winter.
Christopher is far and away Gettysburg’s most experienced championship competitor with nearly as many matches (eight) as the remaining team members combined (nine). He has turned in one of the finest seasons ever put together by an Orange and Blue heavyweight and enters the weekend 21-5 with a team-best 10 pins. Christopher finished fourth as a freshman and claimed the consolation title (third overall) last year.
“It’s one of the best weights in our conference with at least four guys who are pretty talented,” said Vogel on the Centennial’s heavyweight division “He’s capable of winning the tournament. It’s just going to require him having a good day. He can’t have an off-match this weekend.”
Christopher’s top competitors include reigning heavyweight champ Brock Glotfelty of McDaniel College, Judd Connell of U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, and James Roarty of Stevens. The Bullet junior lost close bouts to both Glotfelty (5-1) and Connell (4-2) earlier this season.
“What we’re trying to do with our training over the next week,” said Vogel, “is to really focus on what each person does well and put them in a position where they can dictate the pace of the match, wrestle loose, and get after it.”
The 2010 Centennial Conference Championship begins Saturday in Hoboken, N.J., with opening bouts at 10 a.m. The consolation and championship matches are scheduled to begin at approximately at 4:30 p.m. Live video of the event is available on Stevens’ website.
