Also, it was our senior day and we honored our three graduating seniors: John Crisafulli, Brian Sheehan, and Jimmy Hamel. John has spent four years on our team and has wrestled at 133 and 141 pounds. He has consistently been one of the hardest workers in our room day in and day out. He has wrestle many matches at UB and is the third member of his immediate family to wrestle at UB. Brian Sheehan transferred into UB last season and immediately made an impact. He wrestled his way into the starting line-up his first season and has again started for us this year. He placed at the UB Open, the New York State Collegiate Tournament, and the MAC Championships during his tenure here. Brian wrestled at 165, 174, and 197 pounds at UB. Jimmy Hamel has been on the UB team for five years and is a four year starter. He has broken records and is going to remain a fixture in our record books for a long time. He is 2nd all time in career wins at UB will 116 and counting. He is already a 2X National Qualifier, University Freestyle All-American, and has been ranked as high as 11th in the country. He wrestled at 184 and 197 pounds during his career at UB.
We started the match at 197 pounds. Brian Sheehan wrestled his first match up at 197 pounds (he was our starter earlier in the year at 174 pounds before being injured and emerging as the 197 pound starter). He went out on senior day with a bang as he controlled his opponent and wrestled a very smart match. He was the aggressor and won a hard-fought battle over a larger opponent. I am excited to see him pull some more "upsets" at the MAC Tournament.
Brett Correll lost a tight match at heavyweight in overtime. He caught an accidental head-bunt about thirty seconds into the match. He busted his nose open pretty badly and soldiered through the match. He will be healthy and ready to perform at the MAC Tournament.
Sean Walton dropped a tight overtime match at 125 pounds. He put his opponent on his back and nearly pinned him (of course I thought he had him pinned for about 15 seconds). However, he was scored on in overtime to drop a heart-breaker. Sean has been very close to coming up with a big win in the last few weeks against ranked wrestlers and is due to win some of the close ones at MACs.
At 133 pounds, Kevin Smith dominated his opponent and hit the slickest duck-under that I have seen from any wrestler this year. He used a variety of take downs to dominate his opponent. Kevin looks great right now and is peaking at the right time. When he is wrestling well, he is as good as anyone in the country.
In one of the two featured matches of the day, Andrew Schutt took on Tristen DeShazer at 141 pounds. DeShazer is a nationally ranked wrestler that finished in the top 16 at the NCAA National Tournament two years ago and is known for his ability to end matches with a pin. Schutt was wrestling his first match in over a month since sustaining an injury at the New York State Collegiate Tournament. Schutt gave up the first take down early in the match but soldiered back with a strong third period. He started the third period down 3-4, but scored an escape to tie the match before scoring a take down late in the third period by throwing DeShazer down and keeping him flat on his stomach for he remaining twenty seconds of the match. Schutt will be even better by the MAC Tournament and is going to do big things at MACs and Nationals.
Schutt re-energized the team going into the half-time. Desi Green kept the energy going after the half-time by easily winning at 149 pounds. He beat his opponent by a 4-0 score. The wrestler from NIU tried to keep Desi away and hold him out, but was unable to shut his attacks down. I certainly expect Desi to be a high All-American that is knocking on the door of a National Title this season.
Mark Lewandowski won a wild match in the other featured match against two-time NCAA National Qualifier and MAC Champion Brian Deutsch. There was controversy in the match as Mark scored a reversal with about a minute left in the first period. However, at the end of the first period, the referee waved off the points and Deutsch was able to get out the the first period ahead 2-1. going into the third period, the match was tied but Deutsch had a significant amount of riding time (thanks to the waived off reversal call). Mark scored the escape to tie the match and send it to overtime. Mark showed the heart of a champion by scoring a beautiful take down in overtime to win the match. It was another great win for Mark as he positioned himself as a legitimate All-American threat.
John-Martin Cannon continued his string of impressive showings with another dominate win. He got after his opponent right from the start and was aggressive throughout the match. He scored on a variety of take downs and ended the match with seven take downs. He looked like an All-American in this match.
At 174 pounds, Ron Majerus got back on track with a solid win. He scored four take downs in the match. He was dominate throughout the match but let-up a little in the closing seconds and gave-up a take down to finish with a 9-6 win. Ron is turning it on when it counts most going into the MAC Championships.
Jimmy Hamel wrestled the last match of his storied career at Alumni Arena at 184 pounds against a very tough Brad Dieckhaus. Jimmy started slow and never got himself wrestling his match. He allowed Dieckhaus to control the pace and tempo of the match and he ultimately lost in a multiple overtime match. Jimmy should see him in the MAC semifinals and I am confident that he will avenge this loss and win a MAC Championship.
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