Traveling cross-country to Las Vegas, the Bulls gambled this weekend. Not for money though but for the chance to beat the best wrestling teams in the United States.
Buffalo competed in one of the biggest national wrestling tournaments, the 2006 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Taking 28th place this year, the Bulls and head coach Jim Beichner found it an unpleasant change from last years 16th place.
"We came out here to test ourselves against the best in the country and to see where we are at for this point in the season," Beichner said. "I think as a whole our team is disappointed and we did not perform as well as we thought we would. It was a disappointing weekend."
The tournament matches began Friday morning with nine of the Bulls wrestlers competing. Wrestling at the 125-pound division, sophomore Sean Bauer fell to The Citadel's Sim Tyler in his first match of the tournament, 0-5. While trying to fight back in the consolation bracket Bauer fell again, this time to Rider's Thomas Lorenza in a hard fought overtime decision, 5-7.
Senior captain Mark Budd took the highest spot for the Bulls ranking sixth in the tournament. Budd battled his way through seven exhausting matches, ending the tournament with a 4-3 record. In Budd's most notable match, he proved victorious over Missouri's nationally fourth-ranked wrestler Tyler McCormick (3-1).
"Mark Budd wrestled very well he wrestled in the hardest weight class in the tournament," Beichner said. "He wrestled the fourth-ranked, fifth-ranked and seventh-ranked wrestlers in the country in addition to all the other matches, it was grueling. He wrestled well and then fell short a little bit. Unfortunately that is the way it works."
Freshman Andrew Stella attempted to take the 141-pound division for the Bulls but lost in the first round (8-4) and then again in the consolation bracket (13-4). At 149 pounds, junior Ryan Needle suffered defeat in the first round (7-1). Needle made a short comeback attempt in the consolation bracket, taking a victory over Air Force's Lord Bridger (1-0), but was eventually eliminated by the Virginia's Drew Dipasquale (9-4).
Sophomore Scott Rendos was unsuccessful in the tournament at 157 pounds, suffering losses to Dustin Olsen from Utah Valley State (5-1) and Michigan's Jeff Marsh (6-3). At 165 pounds, junior Mike Ragusa notched a victory over Ohio University's Jacob Ison (12-3), but lost in the second round (4-1) and in the consolation bracket in a nail biting double overtime 4-2 match to Nick Conklin from EMU.
In the 174-pound class, junior Nate Rock was unable to seal a victory, suffering losses to Indiana's Perry Trevor (5-4) and then to Tennessee-Chattanooga's Lloyd Rogers (10-2) in the consolation bracket.
Freshman Ricky Scott was victorious in his first round at 197 pounds, beating out the Virginia's Kyle Narkiewicz, 2-1. Scott was then defeated in the second round (7-6), but he began to fight back notching victories against Ohio's Larry Reichard and Nathan Everhart of Indiana in the consolation bracket. Scott found himself being eliminated in his fifth match of the tournament to Hofstra University's Chris Weidman, 13-5.
"Ricky Scott had a very good weekend," Beichner said. "He wrestled several guys that were ranked in the country. He had a couple of very good wins and lost a very close match to a wrestler ranked 15th in the country. It was match he could of won."
In the heavyweight division, junior Jeff Parker defeated Missouri Valley College's Wade Empting (11-1) and slaughtered Eric Large of Embry-Riddle in a technical fall of 25-9. Parker's success was short lived and he eventually fell to Oregon State's Ty Watterson (5-0) and to the Virginia's Scott Smith (7-3) in the consolation round.
The tournament did point out a few key issues that Beichner wishes to work on.
"Mental toughness is an issue we need to work on and we can develop that," Beichner said. "It is just like technique, it is something you can develop, something you can work on through good practice habit. When we get home we are definitely going to work on the mental toughness side of the mat."
Although the team's performance was not ideal, Beichner is confident this tournament will not be a major setback.
"We are a good team," Beichner said. "They are good guys and they work hard. I always say we have to find a way to come back and do better and our guys have always responded. I fully expect the team to recover, regroup and step it up in the very near future."
The Bulls return home to recharge and battle the Edinboro Fighting Scots this Saturday in Alumni Arena. The match is scheduled for 11 a.m.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
