Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
EIWA Championships
Three Army Wrestlers Move To EIWA Semifinals
March 06, 2015 | Wrestling
BETHLEHEM, Pa. - Three wrestlers moved into the semifinals and two others will compete in wrestlebacks as the Army wrestling team completed the first day of competition at the 111th Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships, Friday at Stabler Arena.
Cole Gracey (165), Russell Parsons (157) and Brian Harvey (174) all advanced to Saturday's semifinal round, while Logan Everett (141) and Bryce Barnes (197) moved to the consolation bracket.
Wrestling will resume Saturday at 10 a.m. with the semifinals and third round of wrestlebacks. Consolation semifinals and seventh-place matches will start around 12:30 p.m. The EIWA Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place at 5 p.m. with the finals and third- and fifth-place bouts to follow.
Gracey, Parsons and Harvey are all seeking to become Army's first 21st EIWA Champion and first since Matt Kyler in 2010.
Cornell leads the team race with 93 points, followed by host Lehigh (88), Columbia (55) and Penn (54). Army stands in eighth place with 40.5 points in the 16-team field.
"We don't have a choice but to focus on the five guys who have a shot to go deep in this tournament," said first-year Army head coach Kevin Ward. "Of course, we would like to have more guys in contention. Right now, though, we have five guys who we feel really good about."
Gracey, seeded third at 165, opened the tournament with a 17-0 technical fall over Nick Terdick of Hofstra that took 3:17. He then scored a major decision over sixth-seed Marshall Peppelman of Lehigh to advance to the semifinals. He will wrestle Dylan Palacio, the second seed from Cornell, in the semifinals.
Parsons, the No. 4 seed at 157, secured a 9-1 major decision over Casey Mitchell of Sacred Heart before earning a 3-1 victory over fifth-seeded Markus Scheidel of Columbia. His opening round victory was his first major decision this season. He will face top-seeded Brian Realbuto of Cornell in the semifinals.
Harvey is Army's highest seed at No. 2 at 174. He collected a 10-5 victory over Judd Ziegler of Princeton before posting a 3-0 victory over No. 7 Josef Johnson of Harvard. He will wrestle third-seed Santiago Martinez of Lehigh in the semifinals.
Everett, seeded sixth at 141, beat Dylan Caruana of Binghamton 6-2 before dropping a 3-1 decision to third-seed Randy Cruz of Lehigh. Everett secured a 3-2 win over Michael Sprague of American in his first consolation bout. He will face seventh-seed Jeff Canfora of Pennsylvania Saturday morning.
Barnes, the fifth seed at 197, rolled to a 16-4 major decision over Sasha Oliinyk of Sacred Heart in his first match and dropped into the consolation bracket after a 9-1 loss to No. 4 Canaan Bethea of Pennsylvania. Barnes posted a 6-2 victory over Augustus Marker of Brown in his first wrestleback. He will face Caleb Wallace of Binghamton in Saturday's consolation round.
"This is my first time at the EIWAs and it is just as tough as I expected," said Ward. "I have some experience in really tough tournaments with a lot on the line and this is what I expected. Saturday will be our toughest day of the season by far. We need to be ready to be our toughest when it matters the most. "
Sean Badua dropped his first match at 125 to third-seed Paul Petrov of Bucknell and then beat Navy's Brant Leadbetter 5-2. His tournament ended with a loss to fifth-seed William Watterson of Brown.
Javier Rodriguez, seeded seventh at 149, scored a 14-5 major decision over Brendan Goldsup of Sacred Heart in the first round before being edged by second-seed Charles Cobb of Penn. Rodriguez exited the tournament after a loss to Lehigh's Drew Longo.
Samson Imonode dropped his opening match at 184 to fourth seed Lorenzo Thomas of Pennsylvania and then beat Elliot Antler of Sacred Heart 4-1. Binghamton's Jack McKeever defeated Imonode 5-3 in the second round of consolations.
At 133, Christian Doyle dropped his first two matches, as did heavyweight David Farr.
TOURNAMENT NOTES: Cole Gracey leads the team with a 32-9 mark ... Gracey is now second on the team with five technical falls, one behind Javier Rodriguez ... Russell Parsons improved to 26-8 on the season ... Brian Harvey improved to 23-7 this season ... Bryce Barnes, who finished sixth last season at EIWAs, is now 17-4 ... He is tied for second on the team with seven major decisions ... Logan Evertt is now 20-3 this season ... Army has seven wrestlers with at least 20 wins this season ... Matt Kyler was Army's last EIWA champion, winning the title at 149 in 2010.
Players Mentioned
