Wrestling Places Fourth at Opening Oklahoma Gold Showcase
11/12/2005 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Brockport, NY Kent State opened its 2005-06 wrestling season winning three-of-10 weight classes Saturday (Nov. 12) at the Oklahoma Gold Showcase hosted by SUNY-Brockport. The Golden Flashes placed fourth in the team standings, with nine KSU grapplers earning top-six finishes. Oklahoma, ranked second in the nation in all major polls, took the team title with 170 points.
Senior Alex Camargo(Brook Park, Ohio/Berea) defeated two highly ranked opponents en route to his second straight Oklahoma Gold Championship at 184 pounds. Camargo knocked off seventh-ranked Justin Dyer of Oklahoma 9-4 in the semifinals before winning his final match 6-2 over No. 9 Rudy Medini of Rutgers. For his efforts in a bracket that featured five nationally ranked wrestlers, Camargo was tabbed as the tournamentss Most Outstanding Wrestler. Alex did an oustanding job today, winning a diificult bracket with relative ease, said head coach Jim Andrassy. He did not get taken down in any of his four matches.
Junior Aaron Miller (Uniopolis, Ohio/Wapokoneta) also went 4-0 on the day, winning a championship at 174 pounds. Another Flash earned his way into the semifinals at 174 as freshman Eric Chine (Austintown/Fitch) won his first two matches before dropping a pair of tight contests 4-2 and 3-2.
Blue and gold dominated the 157-pound bracket as sophomore Kurt Gross (North Royalton, Ohio/Padua Franciscan) and junior Jason McGee (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio/Cuyahoga Falls) each reached the finals but did not wrestle a final match. In his quarterfinal bout, McGee won a 15-14 thriller over Chris Banket of Penn.
Junior transfer Chad Sportelli (Easton, Pa./Easton/Nebraska) made his debut with the Golden Flashes a memorable one. Sportelli went 4-1 for a third place finish with his only loss coming to Sam Hazewinkel (Oklahoma), ranked second in the nation at 125 pounds. Junior Ardian Ramadini (Garfield, NJ/Garfield) captured a fourth place at 197, going 4-2 with a pin.
KSU also had a solid showing in the heavyweight bracket as redshirt freshman Jermail Porter (Akron, Ohio/Firestone) and junior Willie Leonard (Chestertown, Md./Kent County) finished fifth and sixth respectively. Leonard notched a pair of pins while Porters one pin came 43 seconds into his match. Sophomore Drew Lashaway (Bowling Green, Ohio/Eastwood/Bowling Green) claimed a pair of victories at 141 pounds while true freshman Paul Chonko (Tallmadge, Ohio/Tallmadge) earned his first collegiate victory at 133.
We wrestled without two of our top guys today (Drew Opfer & Jason Bake) who we hope to have back in December, said Andrassy. With those two in the lineup we could have been right up there with Oklahoma. Im proud of the job we did today but theres a lot of room for improvement. We stayed tough throughout the day but we need to work on some basics and getting into better shape.
The Golden Flashes will return to Upstate New York on Saturday, Nov. 19, for the Body Bar Invitational hosted by Cornell University in Ithaca, NY.
2005 SUNY-BROCKPORT/OKLAHOMA GOLD PLACE WINNERS
Weight Result Place
125 Chad Sportelli Third
157 Kurt Gross/Jason McGee First
157 Kurt Gross/Jason McGee Second
174 Aaron Miller First
174 Eric Chine Fifth
184 Alex Camargo First
197 Ardian Ramadini Fourth
285 Jermail Porter Fifth
285 Willie Leonard Sixth
