The Ithaca College wrestling team faced off against the No. 12 College of New Jersey Lions in a dual meet on Jan. 27 at Ben Light Gymnasium. It was a meet that came down to the last match with the Lions winning 20–15 over the Bombers.

The first match of the day was Bombers’ junior Cosmo Damiana vs first-year Matt Griffin in the 125 lb weight class. To start off, Griffin took down Damiana for three points. Griffin dominated the whole match, taking down Damiana again and holding him on the ground for about a minute to be up 14–2. Griffin took down Damiana again and got a 21–2 victory by technical fall to give the Lions a 5–0 lead.

The next match was Bombers’ sophomore Francisco Muriel vs junior Kyle Nase in the 133 lb weight class. The match started mostly on the ground with both wrestlers trying to get over top of one another. However, when both wrestlers got up, Muriel was taken to the ground to give Nase three points. Most of the match was Nase over Muriel and ended with Muriel getting pinned to give Nase the win by fall and to give the Lions an 11–0 lead.

The next competitors to square off were Bombers’ junior Matt Haycook and sophomore Sam Kotch in the 141 lb weight class. The first period was a slow one with Kotch getting one takedown and having a 3–1 lead. Most of the period happened with both wrestlers standing up. The second period was similar with Kotch getting another takedown and holding a 7–2 lead. The third period was the same story with another takedown from Kotch to give him a 10–4 lead. Kotch won by decision 10–4 with all of Haycook’s points coming from escapes. The win gave the Lions a 14–0 lead over the Bombers.

Bombers’ Graduate student Matthew Beyer faced off against first-year Mayson Harms in the 149 lb weight class. The first period ended in a 0–0 score. The second period started with Beyer escaping a takedown and then taking down Harms to grab a 4–1 lead. In the third period, Beyer was able to get another takedown. The match ended with Beyer winning by decision in a 7–3 victory to cut the Bomber’s deficit to 14–3.

After that, was Bombers’ junior Wenchard Pierre-Louis vs. first-year Ryan Datz in the 157 lb weight class. The first period started with a takedown from Pierre Louis to take a 3–0 lead. In the second period, Datz was able to get an escape with nothing else happening. In the third period, both wrestlers continued to fight back and forth until Pierre-Louis stepped out with 44 seconds left and a 4–2 lead with an injury. However, Pierre-Louis was able to go back in and take home the 4–2 win by decision to make the score 14–6.

In the 165 lb weight class, Bombers’ sophomore Konrad Parker went against junior Nick Sacco. Parker got the first takedown of the match with little time left in the first period to take a 3–1 lead.​​​ The second period had no action other than an escape from Sacco. In the third period, Sacco was able to takedown Parker to grab a 6–4 lead and won the match 7–5 to increase the Lion’s lead to 17–6

The next match was Bombers’ junior Jackson Gray against junior James Romaine in the 174 lb weight class. No points were scored in the first period of play. The second period started with Gray getting an escape to take a 1–0 lead. With ten seconds left in the match, Gray was able to get both a takedown and an escape to grab a 5–1 victory by decision. The win gave the Bombers three more points and made the score 17–9

The next to face off were Bombers’ first-year Jake Jones and graduate student Reid Colella in the 184 lb weight class. The first two periods of play only had one escape from Colella who led 1–0. However, in the third round Jones was able to get an escape and two takedowns to win 7–2 and to shorten the Lions lead to 17–12

Bombers’ Sophomore Ryan Galka faced sophomore Chris Stavrou in the 197 lb weight class. In the first period, Galka was able to get two takedowns to have a 6–1 lead. Nobody scored in the second period, but in the final period, Stavrou was able to get an escape to reduce Galka’s lead to 6–2. Galka was able to notch a 7–2 win after being rewarded a point for having over a minute of control time. The win cut the Bombers deficit to only two points with a score of 17–15.

The last match of the day was Bombers’ senior Jeremy Mazella vs. graduate student Peter Wersinger. To start the match, Wersinger was able to get a takedown to take a 3–0 lead, but Mazella was able to escape to reduce the score to 3–1. In the second period, Mazella was able to get another escape to make the score 3–2. In the last period, Mazella was able to get a takedown and send the match to overtime. In overtime, Wersinger was able to get a takedown in the last seconds to win 8–5 over Mazella and to give the Lions a 20–15 win.

After the match, assistant coach Ricardo Gomez said that he was encouraged with how the team recovered after the first three matches.

“This all comes down to behind the scenes in preparation,” Gomez said. “This is just another development and step for regionals.”

Galka explained that the loss was tough, but that the loss is just going to help them and motivate the team for the future.

“Losing sucks always, but we really do think we were the better team,” Galka said. “Everyone really wrestled tough, and I think the motivation to take is that we did a lot of right things, and we got to correct the things we did wrong, and we got three matches tomorrow to do that.”

The Bombers will compete in the John Reese Duals at Wilkes University from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Jan. 28 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. They will face off against Springfield College, Keystone College, and Penn College.