Wrestling Falls to No. 25 Rider, 22-10 at Home

NORFOLK, Va. – The Old Dominion wrestling team (4-8, 2-2 MAC) fell to No. 25 Rider (8-2, 4-1 MAC), 22-10 in a Mid-American Conference (MAC) East Division battle at Chartway Arena on Sunday afternoon.
 
"I thought we had three kids wrestle well, but some of our guys just didn't perform today," head coach Steve Martin said after dual. "We can't be tentative going into our matches. The other night against Lock Haven we were not tentative."
 
Old Dominion jumped out to a 6-0 advantage after the first two bouts of the afternoon, as No. 16 Killian Cardinale and Shannon Hanna II each earned victories at 125 pounds and 133 pounds, respectively. Cardinale faced off against No. 19 Jonathan Tropea in the first of three ranked matchups in the dual. The two ranked combatants were tied, 5-5 after three periods, forcing a sudden victory period. Cardinale managed to take down Tropea halfway through the period to earn the first win of the day.
 
Hanna's match also went into a sudden victory period, as he and Anthony Cefelo were tied at three apiece after the three regulation rounds. It looked like the two wrestlers would be heading into a tie-breaker round, but with 13 seconds left, the Monarch freshman earned a takedown to give his team a 6-0 lead.
 
At 141 pounds, No. 18 Sa'Derian Perry, coming off of his victory over No. 15 Kyle Shoop of Lock Haven, faced another ranked opponent in No. 33 Pete Lipari. Lipari managed to get the better of the ranked Monarch, as he earned a late takedown over Perry to jump ahead, 5-4 and earn the victory to put the Broncs on the board. 
 
The 149-pound bout also went into overtime, as senior Kenan Carter and Gino Fluri ended the third frame with the scored tied at 1-1. After a scoreless sudden victory round, the two combatants went into two 30-second tie-breaker periods. It looked like Carter earned  a 2-1 victory, but after a Rider challenge, it was determined that Fluri earned a penalty point to tie the score again, and the bout had to restart with 28 seconds left in the second tie-breaker period. Fluri earned an escape point to take a 3-2 win by decision to tie the team scores at six.
 
The third ranked matchup of the dual came at 157 pounds, where All-American Larry Early, ranked 12th in the nation, faced off against No. 6 Jesse Dellavecchia in a battle of NCAA qualifiers from a year ago. The only point earned in the battle was earned by Dellavecchia, as he escaped Early in the second period. The 1-0 win by decision gave Rider its first lead of the afternoon.
 
The Monarchs regained the lead after the 165-pound bout, when senior Shane Jones earned a 16-3 major decision victory over Joe Casey. Jones' major decision win, one of two bouts that earned bonus points n the day, would end up being the last bout ODU won on the afternoon, as Rider closed out the dual winning the final four matchups. 
 
At 174 pounds, Alex Cramer was tasked to face No. 17 Dean Sherry. The ranked Bronc collected five takedowns to earn a 14-8 win by decision over the Monarch freshman. The 184-pound bout saw George Walton earn a reversal in the third period over Antonio Agee to carry him to the 4-3 win by decision.
 
No. 8 Ethan Laird clinched the victory for the Broncs after earning a 10-2 major decision win over senior Timothy Young. Laird earned a takedown and a two-point nearfall in the first period and never looked back. In the final bout, Rider's Ryan Cloud earned a 7-2 win by decision over Will Hilliard at 285 pounds to bring the final score to 22-10 in Rider's favor.
 
"At this time of the year, all 10 of our wrestlers should be hitting on all cylinders, like they did the other night," Martin said. "We have to come back and look at some of our technical mistakes, but the clock is ticking. Nationals are right around the corner."
 
Up Next
After a quick two-game homestand, the wrestling Monarchs hit the road again next weekend and head to Pennsylvania to take on two more MAC East Division teams. On Friday, January 24, the team takes on Edinboro at 7 p.m. before taking on Clarion on Sunday afternoon, January 26 at 2 p.m.  
 
Box Score 
Rider 22 – Old Dominion 10
125: #16 Kilian Cardinale (ODU) dec. over #19 Jonathon Tropea (Rider) 7-5 (SV-1) 
133: Shannon Hanna II (ODU) dec. over Anthony Cefelo (Rider) 5-3(SV-1)
141: #33 Pete Lipari (Rider) dec. over #18 Sa`Derian Perry (ODU) (Dec 5-4) 
149: Gino Fluri (Rider) dec. over Kenan Carter (ODU) 3-2 (TB-1) 
157: #6 Jesse Dellavecchia (Rider) dec. over #12 Larry Early (ODU) 1-0 
165: Shane Jones (ODU) MD over Joe Casey (Rider) 16-3 
174: #17 Dean Sherry (Rider) dec. over Alex Cramer (ODU) 14-8
184: George Walton (Rider) dec. over Antonio Agee (ODU) 4-3 
197: #8 Ethan Laird (Rider) MD over Timothy Young (ODU) 10-2 
285: Ryan Cloud (Rider) dec. over William Hilliard (ODU) 7-2