The New York University wrestling team swept all four of its matches at the New York vs. Pennsylvania Duals, hosted by the College of Mount Saint Vincent on Saturday, November 12, in Riverdale, NY.
NYU's best win of the day came in its opening match against Wilkes University. The squad followed up the win vs. Wilkes with decisive victories against Keystone College, Pennsylvania College of Technology and King's College.
Against Wilkes, NYU dropped the first two bouts, but battled back for a 22-14 victory.
"We came out 4-0 on the day and that's exactly what we were hoping for," said NYU Senior Assistant Coach
Corey Luce. "Wilkes is a very good team, so that is a big win for us. We came out looking to wrestle aggresively and score, and that separated us today."
The eight-point margin vs. Wilkes would be the closest of the day, as the grapplers won their final three matches by 19 (King's), 31 (Keystone) and 34 (Penn Tech). Leading the way for NYU were senior captain
John Messinger and junior captain
Raymond Jazikoff, who each went 4-0.
Messinger won three bouts at 174 pounds and also wrestled up a weight class (184 pounds) against Wilkes.
"We anticipated a close match against Wilkes, so I bumped up a class to help the team," said Messinger. "I'm used to wrestling bigger guys all week in practice, so it wasn't that much of an issue."
Jazikoff won all four of his bouts at 157 pounds to improve to 8-1 on the season. Two of the South Plainfield, NJ, native's wins came by major decision and he also picked up a 6-3 victory over Nicholas Racanelli, a returning NCAA qualifier from Wilkes.
Other Highlights:
- Freshman
Evan Drill was a perfect 3-0 at 141 pounds.
- Drill's classmate,
Jack La Corte picked up four wins at 197 pounds. He only needed to step on the mat once, a 2-1 decision against Wilkes, and also earned three forfeit victories.
- Freshman
Sam Schwartzapfel finished 3-1 at 165 pounds and picked up two wins by fall.
- NYU went 8-1 in exhibition matches over the course of the day.
The squad returns to action next Sunday, November 20, when it heads to Ithaca, NY, for the New York State Collegiate Championships, hosted by Cornell University.
"Today was a great day for us, but it's time to get back in the wrestling room and keep working hard," said Jazikoff.
