Kent State University
Navy Classic
McGuire Wins 133-Pound Crown at Navy Classic
11/22/2014 9:59:00 PM | Wrestling
Junior Mack McGuire won a 133-pound title, while Kent State placed sixth of 13 teams Saturday at the Navy Classic. With several starters out of the lineup, the Golden Flashes notched 82.5 team points, while Chattanooga won the tournament with 108.5 points inside Wesley Brown Field House. A second place by senior 174-pounder Caleb Marsh was one of five Top 6 finishes by the Flashes.
McGuire went 5-0 with a pin and a major decision. His closest match came in the finals as he topped Wisconsin's Ryan Taylor 6-3. Taylor, who moved up a weight for the tournament was ranked No. 7 at 125 in three polls this week. The bracket also featured Chattanooga's Nick Soto, who McGuire lost to last weekend.
"Mack had a good week of preparation," Head Coach Jim Andrassy said. "When he works hard in the room every day and does a good job keeping his weight down, it shows in his matches."
Marsh was dominant until his final bout, going 4-1 with three technical falls. Last weekend, he needed overtime to defeat Chattanooga's Sean Mappes, but in Saturday's semifinal Marsh needed only two periods to finish off a 15-0 tech fall over Mappes. Former All-American Cody Walters (Ohio) topped Marsh 4-1 in the finals.
"Caleb's had a very good season and he did pretty well in the finals even though the score didn't show it," Andrassy said. "His only two losses are to Top 10 guys.
"We just haven't put it all together as a team in the same event yet. I know we're better than what we've been doing. We just can't seem to get all our guys on the same page. We need better focus and hopefully we can do that by our Missouri trip (Dec. 19)."
Andrassy did see noticeable improvement from redshirt freshman Stephen Suglio, who place fourth at 197. Suglio went 4-2 with a pin and earned a spot in the semifinals.
Juniors Del Vinas and Cory Campbell each placed sixth going 3-3 on the day. Campbell recorded a tech fall over West Virginia's Greg Thurston to make his way into the 184-pound quarterfinals. Vinas (125) also advanced to the quarterfinals before suffering his first of two losses to Ohio's Kevon Powell.
Junior Mike DePalma went 3-2, but did not place at 149. DePalma was pinned twice in matches he was leading.
Sophomore Mimmo Lytle (285), redshirt freshman Jerald Spohn (165), junior Kyle Bauer (141) and freshman Anthony Tutolo (125) all went 2-2.
Kent State will get a two-week break from competition, before opening Mid-American Conference dual competition Dec. 6, at Buffalo.
Players Mentioned
