Results
The New York University wrestling team traveled to Wilkes-Barre, PA, on Tuesday, December 28 to participate in the Wilkes Open.
In part due to the snowstorm that pounded New York City and other parts of the East Coast with more than a foot of snow, NYU brought a short roster and only entered eight wrestlers in the Open.
The 21-team field that NYU faced was its toughest competition of the season so far, as more than half of the teams were Division I programs. This included American University, Lehigh University and Rutgers University, ranked numbers 10, 12 and 14, respectively, in Division I.
Even though they were competing against some of the top wrestlers from across the country, Sabino Galassi and Matt Magill both pulled out impressive finishes.
Wrestling in the 184-pound division Galassi battled throughout the day and eventually made it to the third-place match, where he fell and took home fourth. Having to face Division I opponents throughout the day, Galassi wrestled tough and finished with a 3-2 record.
“Sam had a lot of great offensive attacks,” said assistant coach Corey Luce. “He wrestled very aggressively, and even though he came up short in the end, he wrestled a great tournament.”
The other top finisher for NYU was Magill, who competed in the 165-pound class. Like his teammate Galassi, even though Magill matched up against wrestlers from top programs throughout the day, he still pulled out multiple victories. Magill ended the day 4-2.
“Matt wrestled tough throughout the day,” said Luce “He beat a bunch of Division I guys, and he was one takedown away from the third-place match.”
“Other than us and host Wilkes College, the rest of the teams were all Division I and II schools,” Luce said. “We use this tournament as a big tune-up for the Virginia Duals next week. Coming off of finals and the holiday break, we want to make sure our guys are where they need to be for the Duals, one of our biggest events of the season.”
The grapplers continue their season on January 5 when they travel to Baltimore, MD, to compete in a match against Johns Hopkins University.
