Collegeville, PA --- WPI wrestling ventured to Ursinus College on Saturday to take part in the North-South duals. The Engineers split a pair of close matches to open the event and finished 1-3 on day and are now 5-4 on the season.
WPI dropped a 19-18 decision to McDaniel (MD) on criteria before getting a Nick Day (Northampton, MA) pin at heavyweight to defeat Elizabethtown 21-19. The Crimson and Gray closed the day by falling 44-0 to nationally-ranked Stevens (NJ) and 23-10 to Division II Shippensburg (PA).
Day took the mat against the Blue Jays with his team trailing 19-15. The freshman gave WPI the victory when he pinned his opponent 1:13 into the second period. The match started out with the two squads alternating victories over the first five weight classes. WPI got decisions via Brian Amato (Newington, CT) at 125 pounds, Pete Nash (Liverpool, NY) at 141 and Graysen DeLuca (Canterbury, CT) at 157 to take a 9-7 edge. The Boynton Hillers surged ahead 15-7 when Justin Marsh (Upper Black Eddy, PA) took a forfeit at 165 only to see Elizabethtown claim the next three bouts to seize a 19-15 lead before Day's heroics brought the Engineers the victory.
The opening match was even closer but didn't go in WPI's favor. After McDaniel posted a 9-3 victory in the final bout at heavyweight the match came down to criteria No. 2 - most combined total number of falls, forfeits, defaults and disqualifications - where the Green Terror's pin at 141 was the difference. The Engineers posted five wins in the match-up, including a 21-4 technical fall by DeLuca at 157 pounds, a 11-0 major from Amato at 125 and decision victories by Marsh, Lucas Muntz (West Hartford, CT) and Michael Curtis (Wells, ME) at 165, 174 and 197 respectively.
Against the Division II Red Raiders, WPI captured three of the last five bouts. Marsh grinded out a 2-1 win in tiebreaker 1 at 165 just before Muntz decisioned his opponent 6-2. Austin Shrewsbury (Westfield, MA) closed out the day by posting a 8-0 major decision shutout at 285.
WPI returns home next Saturday, hosting Trinity, Wesleyan and Roger Williams in a noon quad match.
