PRINCETON, N.J. - The VMI wrestling team dropped a pair of dual meets against tough opposition on Saturday, falling 33-6 to Princeton and 45-0 to Rutgers in a tri-meet hosted at Princeton's Dillon Gym.
The Keydets (0-2) managed a pair of wins against the host Tigers (2-1), as Ronnie Ellsworth scored a 3-1 decision over Charles Fox at 197 lbs., while heavyweight Josh Wine, wrestling his first match of the season, scored a 6-0 blanking against Stephen Turner.
"We had a couple of positives today, with getting Josh (Wine) and Ronnie (Ellsworth) back out there," said VMI head coach John Trudgeon. "Josh had just five days of practice before getting out there, and he looked pretty sharp. He had enough juice, and wrestled a good match. Ronnie had been out the past couple of weeks, so it was good to get him back as well, and he wrestled well to pick up a win. As a whole, we struggled technically today, and were doing things that aren't going to lead to success at this level. We have to pull it together, and hopefully next week's home dual will get our guys excited to do that."
Keydet wrestlers dropped five straight decisions to open the match against Princeton, including narrow losses by John Pope at 125 (8-5) and David Yost at 141 (2-0). A VMI forfeit at 165 lbs. followed, while back-to-back pins at 174 and 184 from Travis Erdman and Kurt Brendel, respectively, preceded VMI's two wins to round out the match.
Against the Scarlet Knights (5-3), VMI managed just three decisions, coming as Conor Black dropped a 11-5 contest at 165, while Andrew Szymborski and Evan Dill fell 7-3 at 174 and 3-1 at 184, respectively. The Keydets were pinned three times and lost by forfeit while losing four other major decisions to account for the final margin.
VMI Wrestling returns to action on Friday evening, playing host to Gardner-Webb in the team's home opener at 7:30 p.m. at the Thunderdome.
PRINCETON 33, VMI 6
125 - Garrett Frey (P) d. Jonathan Pope 8-5
133 - Zach Bintliff (P) d. Luke Todd 7-2
141 - Luis Ramos (P) d. David Yost 2-0
149 - Daniel Kolodzik (P) d. Mike Long 9-4
157 - Danny Scotton (P) d. Matthew Brock 8-4
165 - Andy Lowy (P) wins by forfeit
174 - Travis Erdman (P) p. Andrew Szymborski 6:16
184 - Kurt Brendel (P) p Vinnie Gallo 2:37
197 - Ronald Ellsworth (VMI) d. Charles Fox 3-1
HWT - Josh Wine (VMI) d. Stephen Turner 6-0
RUTGERS 45 VMI 0
125-Dellafave 10-1 Pope
133-Ashnault F2:54 Todd
141-Melde F3:38 Yost
149-Greenwald F1:07 Long
157-Turner 10-0 Brock
165-Zannetti 11-5 Black
174-Seidenberg 7-3 Szymborski
184-Boyden 3-1 Dill
197-Brown 10-2 Gallo
285-Russo WBFF -
