This past weekend, Alumni Arena was home to 271 sweat-drenched men from across the country.
On Sunday, the Bulls wrestling team began their season hosting the UB Open. The event brought in colleges and universities from across the nation, including Mercyhurst, Binghamton, Edinboro and Gannon.
For the non-scoring event, the Bulls earned a first-place finish from senior Mickey Moran in the 184-pound weight class and a second-place finish from freshman Kevin Smith in the 133-pound weight class. Junior Andrew Stella earned a third-place finish in the 141-pound weight class, sophomore Jimmy Hamel earned a third-place finish in the 197-pound weight class and freshman Brett Correll earned a fourth-place ranking in the 285-pound weight class.
At the end of the day, Buffalo head coach Jim Beichner was pleased with how his team did.
???"I think we did a lot of good things today," Beichner said. "Our young guys wrestled fairly well. Half of our team is young right now, while half of our team is freshman."
???Beichner was pleased the most with Moran's performance against Navy Prep wrestler Andrew Buck.
??? "He fell behind in his semifinal match 7 to 0 after the first period, which in our sport it's pretty darn hard to come back," Beichner said. "But, he came back to win."
Moran, who was 5-0 for the night, won the match 14-12 after coming back from the deficit. He scored all of his 14 points in the last four minutes of the match.
???"I just found ways to win," Moran said. "I didn't wrestle my best today."
Smith began the day by pinning Cody Hilsinger of Niagara County CC in 56 seconds. He then shut out Paul Grogan of Rutgers, 4-0. In his final match against Ohio State's Reece Humphrey, he lost 9-5.
Stella and Hamel both won their consolation matches after being knocked out of the semifinals. Stella defeated Zach Kell of Lock Haven, 5-1, while Hamel defeated number one seeded Lamar Brown of Rutgers in overtime, 10-9. Stella shut out his final two opponents while Hamel lost in overtime 3-1 to Clarion's Jamie Luckett. Correll was victorious in his first two bouts, but fell to Wilmongton's John Waggy in the quarterfinals.
Beichner feels the Bulls are here to earn a 'W' for their university.
"Our expectations are to win," he said. "That's it. We come out here and we expect to win."
According to Beichner, the Bulls are an extremely young team, making him happier with how the team did overall at the event.
"There are 15 new guys on the team," he said. "We have a large number of sophomores on the team and only a few returning guys."
As the season starts to get under way, Beichner looks to work on tactics that should help the team win even more events throughout the year.
"We have a lot more positives than negatives," Beichner said. "I think that we'll build on those positives."
While there was no team scoring at the event, Ohio State won six of the 10 possible weight championships, looking like the obvious victor of the day. Edinboro followed with two first-place victories.
The Bulls look to regroup after their home event before they get on the road to North Carolina. They will face off against Davidson College, Campbell University and Duke University on Nov. 15.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
