A strong showing from the wrestling team gave the Bulls a second place finish at SUNY Brockport's Oklahoma Gold Classic, Saturday night. The Bulls finished the tournament with a total of 105 points. The overall winner of the match was the 19th ranked Oklahoma Sooners, who finished the day with 177.5 points.
Senior Dana Gingerich led the Bulls' charge, bringing home second place in the 149-pound division. Gingerich walked to the finals, winning all four of his matches, two of which by pin. His journey would end in the finals when he dropped the match to the 12th ranked 149-pound wrestler Will Rowe by a decision of 9-4. Rowe was one of eight Sooner wrestlers who finished in first place.
For the second meet in a row, seniors Mike Ragusa and Mickey Moran, both placed for the Bulls. Moran won three matches on his way to finishing in third place in the 184-pound class. Moran pinned Army's Scott Ferguson to earn third place.
Ragusa could not get past Oklahoma's 15th ranked Jeff James, who continued on to take first place in the 174-pound weight class. Ragusa finished with a record of 2-1 and also had a first round bye.
At 157 pounds, senior John Cummings also came away with a third place finish. Cummings won his first match of the day, but lost 4-3 in the second round, to Liberty's Shawn Smith. Cummings battled back for the rest of the day winning his next three matches, earning himself a rematch with Smith. Smith would not best Cummings for a second time in the tournament, as Cummings came away with a 4-2 victory to take home third place.
The Bulls also had two fourth place finishers in sophomore Andrew Stella and freshman Jimmy Hamel. In the 141-pound weight class, Stella lost in the second round to the Sooners' Zach Bailey, before winning all of his wrestlebacks. This led to Stella finding himself on the mat with the nations 17th ranked 141-pound wrestler, Kyle Terry. Stella lost the match 7-4 and took fourth place.
Hamel, wrestling at 197-pounds, won his first two matches of the tournament before losing to Kent State's Michael Blackwell in a match for third place.
The Bulls, besting seven other teams at the Oklahoma Gold Classic, could not find a way to get past the Oklahoma Sooners. Buffalo was defeated by every Oklahoma wrestler in every weight class. The Sooners put up a total of 177.5 points, finishing well ahead of Buffalo's 105. Buffalo found themselves opposing Oklahoma wrestlers for most of the day, but could not best the nationally ranked squad.
Buffalo will be back on the mats when they travel to the Body Bar Invitational at Cornell on Nov. 17.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
