The No. 4 ranked wrestling team was cruising along with a 22–0 lead through the first five bouts against No. 22 ranked Lycoming College in Ben Light Gymnasium — that is until the 165-pound match came up.

The Warriors senior captain Christopher Dalheimer faced off against talented, yet inexperienced freshmen Derek Brenon, who was wrestling up a weight class after senior John Dale was scratched from the lineup.

Brenon gave Dalheimer a good fight on the mat, but lost convincingly in the points department 11–0. The score was now 22–4 and Lycoming had life with four bouts remaining.

The following bout, which was in the 174-pound weight class, saw junior David Priest take on Lycoming’s Kyle Crouthamel.

For most of the first period, Crouthamel had a 2–1 lead, but as the seconds started winding down, Priest began to turn it up. With 3.6 seconds to go in the first, Priest pinned Crouthamel to put the South Hill squad up 28–4, sealing up and guaranteeing an Ithaca win. The match eventually concluded with a 37–7 final score.

“I wasn’t really looking for it,” Priest said. “The kid tried doing a move on me and I just squeezed the [expletive] out of him and put him to his back pretty much. It just happened I guess.”

The Bombers are now 5–0 in dual matches this season.

The match started off with the 125-pound bout between senior Jon Gregory and Lycoming’s Noel Faison. The Bombers’ tri-captain wrestled his game, methodically making his opponent work.

Gregory had a slim 2–0 lead after the first period, but then escalated that margin to 10–1 after the second period with strong takedowns and a near fall. In the third, he continued that dominance over Faison by finishing with a winning score of 12–3, giving his team four points to start the match with a major decision.

Sophomore 133-pounder Seth Ecker followed Gregory’s win with another major decision victory for the Blue and Gold. Ecker, another All-American, defeated Andrew Lewis with the game plan of going for the pin quickly as he usually does. Though Lewis was able to avoid relinquishing six points to the South Hill squad, he couldn’t stop Ecker from dominating 17–3. That match the overall score at 8–0 Ithaca. 

The next two bouts saw relatively the same result as the first two with 141-pound junior Jeremy Stierly defeating Jonathon Quiggle by major decision 11–3 and 149-pound junior Blaine Woszczak beating Isaiah Britton 11–1 also for a major decision. At this point, the Bombers were up by a commanding 16–0 lead.

After four major decisions to start the match, 157-pound senior Willie Horwath changed the trend in a positive fashion. Leading 10–1 late into the third against Colton Eyer, it looked like it was going to be another four points for the Blue and Gold. However, Horwath stayed persistent and pinned Eyer with 12.8 seconds left.

“I had the legs in,” Horwath said. “I looked up at the scoreboard. There were about 20 seconds left. They said I can pin this guy because he sort of slipped away the last time [I tried to pin him]. I couldn’t sink the half all the way. I just sunk it [this time] and then got on top and then pinned him.”

Horwath said the Bombers were able to take the in because of their depth.

“We’re tough in down below up through 125 to 157,” Horwath said. “We had five All-Americans last year, and that’s where they came from, those first five weights. We’re like three or four deep at each weight. We’re really tough there.”

Other winners for the Blue and Gold tonight were 184-pound sophomore Chris Carabello, who won by decision, and sophomore heavyweight Matt Mahon, who won by pinfall.

So far this season, Ithaca is coasting through the competition, winning every event it has participated in. The team’s next set of matches is Saturday down the road at Cornell University for the Cornell Invitational, where they will take on mostly Division I competition, including Cornell.

“Those guys at Cornell are all scholarship athletes and we’re going to go out there and see if we can have four or five guys place in the tournament,” Head Coach Marty Nichols said. “That’s the goal.”