Though the NYU wrestling team's first meet of the season did not produce any champions, it featured impressive individual performances from several Violet wrestlers.
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Four Violets placed in the Ithaca College Invitational. Three grapplers (junior co-captains Gregg Martino and Matt Magill as well as sophomore Jamie Myers) reached the title matches of their respective weight classes before falling, while freshman Sabino Galassi finished third in his first collegiate meet.
The team finished fifth overall out of 10 teams, an impressive result since they were without six members of their normal wrestling roster, who remained home due to injuries and personal reasons.
"We got our first competition outside of the room," said Martino, who lost in the final of the 141-pound weight class 5-3 to Ithaca's Jeremy Stierly. "We all got to see where we were at."
The Violet wrestlers that moved deep into the tournament were expected to do so. Martino was the third seed in the 141-pound weight class and defeated seventh-seeded Sean Messina of Hunter College in the semifinal before falling to Stierly. Myers was the top seed in the 197-pound weight class, but he fell to second-seeded Nick Cambi 3-0 in the championship match. Magill was seeded third in the 165-pound class and defeated second-ranked Chris Perry of Springfield College 3-2 in the semifinal before a 3-1 loss to Cenetenary College in the final match.
Freshman Galassi was the fifth-seed in the 184-pound class in his first college tournament. He won his first two collegiate matches before falling to eighth-ranked Jared Myhrberg 4-1 in the semifinal. He rebounded to defeat SUNY-Morrisville's Wheeler Brunschmid 6-1 in the third-place match.
Several other NYU wrestlers were seeded in their weight classes but exited early in the tournament. Senior Kyle Christensen was the fourth seed in the 125-pound weight class but lost his second match of the tournament to Cortland's Mike Walker. Junior Steven Contino, the fifth seed in the 133-pound class, lost his second match to Cortland's Dave Colagiovanni. Sophomore David Rice, seeded fifth in the 159-pound weight class, lost his second match to Cortland's Kevin Sackett, the fourth seed.
The Violets will return to action this Saturday at 11 a.m., when they will compete in the John Reese Duals at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pa.
