NORFOLK, Va. -- Members of the Old Dominion wrestling team competed in the Hokie Open at Virginia Tech and in the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open at Binghamton on Sunday.
"Emilio Saavedra and Seldon Wright both had great tournaments," head coach Steve Martin said. "They both battled but lost to really tough kids in the first round and then won four straight in the consolations before we decided to withdraw them. They would have had to wrestle four more matches in an hour span, and it was already an extremely long day. Overall, we did not have a great tournament, but it was a good experience for the team, and we identified a lot of errors we need to correct."
As an unattached competitor at the Hokie Open, freshman Alex Madrigal wrestled to a fifth place finish at 125. The Chicago-native dropped his opening bout to Britain Carter of Columbia 4-3 before reeling off three straight wins over UNC opponents to capture fifth place.
Brandon James, also competing unattached for the Monarchs, opened up the tournament with a 6-0 decision over UNC’s Sonny Simonetti before falling to Virginia Tech’s nationally-ranked Kevin Norstrem by an 8-3 score in the quarterfinals. James was then defeated in the consolation bracket by Xaviel Ramos of Duke.
Also recording wins for the Monarchs while wrestling unattached at the Hokie Open were Steven Simpson, Jaquan Loney, Delawrence White, Shane Jones, Ben Schram, Blake Sutherland and Connor O’Brien.
At the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open at Binghamton, freshman Seldon Wright and redshirt freshman Emilio Saavedra both reeled off four straight wins in the consolation bracket after dropping their opening matches. Wright lost a hard-fought 1-0 decision to Cornell’s ninth-ranked Duke Pickett, the eventual champion, and then recorded four straight victories in the consolations. Similarly, Saavedra fell to Cornell’s three-time All-American and NCAA finalist Nahshon Garrett by a 4-1 count in the first round before turning in four wins for ODU. Both Monarchs were withdrawn from the tournament by the coaching staff due to time constraints.
"Saavedra wrestled really tough and gutted out a few wins in the final seconds," Martin continued. "He showed that he can hang with the top guys in the nation. Wright also was right there with the No. 9 wrestler in the country, and he put up a lot of points on the scoreboard in his other matches. Both guys were impressive and need to keep working hard to improve each week."
At 141, senior Buddy Scarborough finished 2-2 on the day and recorded a fall. Terrell Forbes and Kaleab Fetahi also picked up two victories on the day at 157 and 174, respectively, for Old Dominion.
Others Monarchs recording wins were Austin Eads at 157, Jared Swan at 165 and John D’Agostino at 285.
Full brackets and results from the tournament can be viewed here.
The Monarch wrestlers open up the dual meet slate next Sunday, Nov. 15 at Virginia for a 1 p.m. match.
Complete ODU Results from Bearcat Open
Champ. Round 1 - Nahshon Garrett (Cornell University) won by decision over Emilio Saavedra (Old Dominion) (Dec 4-1)
Cons. Round 2 - Emilio Saavedra (Old Dominion) won by decision over Austin Harry (Army West Point) (Dec 7-6)
Cons. Round 3 - Emilio Saavedra (Old Dominion) won by decision over Nicholas Casella (Maryland) (Dec 3-2)
Cons. Round 4 - Emilio Saavedra (Old Dominion) won by decision over Ryan Pomrinca (Lehigh) (Dec 14-10)
Cons. Round 5 - Emilio Saavedra (Old Dominion) won by decision over Matthew Noble (Bloomsburg University) (Dec 7-2)
Cons. Round 6 - Zach Valley (Bucknell University) won by medical forfeit over Emilio Saavedra (Old Dominion) (MFF)
Champ. Round 1 - Camden Fischer (Lehigh) won by decision over Tanner Stephens (Old Dominion) (Dec 11-10)
Cons. Round 1 - Noah Hanau (Army Prep) won by decision over Tanner Stephens (Old Dominion) (Dec 7-6)
Champ. Round 1 - Buddy Scarborough (Old Dominion) won by tech fall over Watna Cunha (Johnson & Wales) (TF 17-0)
Champ. Round 2 - Dylan Realbuto (Cornell University) won by fall over Buddy Scarborough (Old Dominion) (Fall 3:31)
Cons. Round 2 - Buddy Scarborough (Old Dominion) won by fall over Jordan Reich (Princeton) (Fall 3:31)
Cons. Round 3 - Ronnie Perry (Lock Haven) won by decision over Buddy Scarborough (Old Dominion) (Dec 7-0)
Champ. Round 1 - Drew Daniels (Navy) won by decision over Austin Eads (Old Dominion) (Dec 4-3)
Cons. Round 1 - Austin Eads (Old Dominion) won by fall over Ben Schroeder (Binghamton University) (Fall 4:15)
Cons. Round 2 - John Van Brill (Rutgers) won by decision over Austin Eads (Old Dominion) (Dec 7-0)
Champ. Round 2 - Ian Brown (Lehigh) won by tech fall over Terrell Forbes (Old Dominion) (TF 18-2)
Cons. Round 2 - Terrell Forbes (Old Dominion) won by forfeit over Nick Demore (AIC) (FF)
Cons. Round 3 - Terrell Forbes (Old Dominion) won by decision over John Van Brill (Rutgers) (Dec 4-2)
Cons. Round 4 - Terrell Forbes (Old Dominion) won by forfeit over Gordon Wolf (Lehigh) (FF)
Cons. Round 5 - Francesco Fabozzi (Princeton) won by decision over Terrell Forbes (Old Dominion) (Dec 10-3)
Champ. Round 2 - Jared Swan (Old Dominion) won by decision over Kanon Dean (Harvard) (Dec 6-5)
Champ. Round 3 - Geno Morelli (Penn State) won by major decision over Jared Swan (Old Dominion) (Maj 16-6)
Cons. Round 4 - Caleb Livingston (Penn State) won by decision over Jared Swan (Old Dominion) (Dec 11-6)
Champ. Round 2 - Duke Pickett (Cornell University) won by decision over Seldon Wright (Old Dominion) (Dec 1-0)
Cons. Round 2 - Seldon Wright (Old Dominion) won by major decision over Michael Falcon (Brockport State) (Maj 16-4)
Cons. Round 3 - Seldon Wright (Old Dominion) won by decision over Ethan Tursini (Army West Point) (Dec 5-3)
Cons. Round 4 - Seldon Wright (Old Dominion) won by injury default over Josh Ugalde (Maryland) (Inj. 1:18)
Cons. Round 5 - Seldon Wright (Old Dominion) won by major decision over Caleb Livingston (Penn State) (Maj 12-4)
Cons. Round 6 - Anthony Deprez (Binghamton University) won by medical forfeit over Seldon Wright (Old Dominion) (MFF)
Champ. Round 1 - Kaleab Fetahi (Old Dominion) won by decision over Michael Schulze (AIC) (Dec 7-1)
Champ. Round 2 - Jon Schleifer (Princeton) won by fall over Kaleab Fetahi (Old Dominion) (Fall 2:33)
Cons. Round 2 - Kaleab Fetahi (Old Dominion) won by decision over Peter Hailer (Johnson & Wales) (Dec 9-4)
Cons. Round 3 - Graham Ratermann (Army West Point) won by decision over Kaleab Fetahi (Old Dominion) (Dec 5-0)
Champ. Round 1 - Conan Schuster (Sacred Heart) won by decision over Brooks Climmons (Old Dominion) (Dec 5-3)
Cons. Round 1 - Cameron Jacobson (University of Pittsburgh) won by decision over Brooks Climmons (Old Dominion) (Dec 4-3)
Champ. Round 1 - Jake Taylor (Cornell University) won in sudden victory - 1 over Austin Coburn (Old Dominion) (SV-1 3-1)
Cons. Round 2 - Josh Popple (Harvard) won by major decision over Austin Coburn (Old Dominion) (Maj 8-0)
Champ. Round 2 - John D`Agostino (Old Dominion) won by decision over Saul Wilkins (Bloomsburg University) (Dec 3-1)
Champ. Round 3 - Mike Markulec (Princeton) won by decision over John D`Agostino (Old Dominion) (Dec 4-3)
Cons. Round 4 - Sean Dee (Binghamton University) won by forfeit over John D`Agostino (Old Dominion) (FF)
Champ. Round 2 - Patrik Garren (University of Pennsylvania) won by decision over Andrew Snyder (Old Dominion) (Dec 6-2)
Cons. Round 3 - Antonio Pelusi (F&M) won by decision over Andrew Snyder (Old Dominion) (Dec 6-2)