For the second year in a row, the No. 3 ranked wrestling team won its opening match of the season, the 26th annual Ithaca Invitational this weekend in Ben Light Gymnasium. 


Heading into the second day of the tournament, the Bombers were 0.5 points behind rival SUNY-Cortland for the top stop in team points for the tournament, behind 90 to 89.5.

But a great second day by the South Hill squad put it ahead of the Red Dragons to take the tournament for a second year in a row by a score of 160–143.5.

On top of that, the Blue and Gold had 11 wrestlers competing in semifinal matches with a chance to win their particular class. Eight out of the 10 classes could have had first-place finishes from an Ithaca wrestler.

“You want to have as many guys in the finals as you can and you hope that you have some of your own guys wrestling each other,” Head Coach Marty Nichols said. “It’s great to have that many guys in the finals.”

The wrestlers in the finals were 125-pound senior tri-captain Jon Gregory, 133-pound senior tri-captain Chad Winowich, 133-pound sophomore Seth Ecker, 141-pound junior Jeremy Stierly, 149-pound junior Blaine Woszczak, 157-pound junior Nick Sanko, 157-pound senior Will Horwath, 157-pound freshman Derek Brenon, 174-pound junior Dave Priest, 197-pound sophomore Tom Heckman and sophomore heavyweight Matt Mahon.

The Bombers earned five first-place finishes, three second-place finishes and two third-place finishes.

The first place finishers were Gregory, Stierly, Woszczak, Brenon and Priest. Finishing second in their respective classes were Winowich, Sanko and Mahon. Finishing third were 141-pound senior Justin Seifried and Horwath.

Gregory took his semi-final match against Cortland’s Jared Lemke 1–0, when was awarded the lone point of the bout in the third period by getting out of a jam. In the championship match against Mike Bastante of Johnson and Wales University, Gregory came out victorious 7–2 to take home first place.

It was this tournament last year that Gregory hurt himself and was sidelined for the year with three herniated discs in his neck. And even though the injury is still lingering and he is not at his peek in terms of his conditioning, he said it felt good for him to take the title.

“My confidence was a little down in the room,” Gregory said. “It’s going to be a few weeks until I feel like I was the wrestler I was towards the end of 2008. But this is definitely a goal I had from day one being a college wrestler here. I took third once and beat some top guys, but it’s nice after four years here to walk away with a tournament title.”

Stierly won his semifinal match against Springfield College’s Blaze Chatham 7_3 and then in the championship round, defeated New York University’s Gregg Martino 5–3 to take the 141-pound title.

Horwath and Sanko faced off against each other in the 157-pound semifinal round. Sanko won by a score of 4–3 in an upset.

Brenon defeated Cortland’s Kevin Sackett in the semifinals 16–9. In the 157-pound championship bout, teammates Brenon and Sanko were supposed to battle in the championship round, but Sanko was a medical forfeit.

Horwath won his next two consolation matches to take third place in the 157-pound weight class. 

In an exciting match against Cortland’s Dave Colagiovanni, Winowish won by a score of 5–3. Minutes later, Ecker lost a battle to Cortland’s Aljamian Sterling 4–3, setting up a 133-pound championship match with Winowich and Sterling.

In that bout, Winowich barely fell to Sterling in a 3–1 score that needed an extra period. In the overtime with the score tied at 1–1, Sterling had an impressive takedown on Winowich for the victory.

In the 149-pound class Wosczacak won his semifinal match against SUNY-Oswego’s Blake Fisher 13–6 and then his championship against Stephen Perz of Cortland 11–3.   

Priest defeated Williams College’s Chris Nadeu 13–3 in the semifinals and Cortland’s Mike Ciaburri in the championship round 6–0.

Priest won this tournament two years ago as a freshman and finished third last year, which he said made today’s victory more fulfilling.

“I worked hard over the summer and in preseason so I’m back where I left off last year and just looking to get better everyday,” Priest said.

Heckman lost against New York University’s James Myers 6–4 in the semifinal round, then lost his first consolation match, but won his second to take fifth at the 197 weight class.

Mahon was the lone Bomber to pin an opponent in the semifinal round, doing so against Springfield’s Ron Fusco with 1:45 left in the first period. However, in his championship bout, he lost to Cortland’s Joe Murphy 3–2.

Though eight first place finishes didn’t happen, beating Cortland and taking first for the second year in a row in the team standings is what Nichols said the Bombers wanted.

“Cortland’s good,” Nichols said. “They’re always good and they’re probably a top-10 team. … The guys that took third, fourth, fifth, those are the guys that helped us win the tournament. You got to have those guys come back and win and do well.”