After a two-week layoff, Rutgers wrestling was scheduled to compete at the Ken Kraft Midlands tournament. The Midlands is historically known as arguably the toughest regular season tournament in college wrestling, and is a great indicator as to where the team stands as Rutgers heads into the New Year with the Big Ten dual meet schedule looming ahead.
The Midlands were unfortunately cancelled due to concerns of COVID-19, making it appear as if Rutgers break from competition would extend all the way into January. Thankfully for Rutgers, a number of other teams scheduled to compete, and the wrestling fans, a group of organizers put together the Matmen Open at the Now Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, in replace of the cancelled Midlands tournament.
The competition was as deep as it would have been for the Midlands, with over twenty teams sending wrestlers, including ranked teams such as Illinois, Michigan, North Carolina, Princeton, and Wisconsin.
Rutgers entered the tournament with eight starters and a handful of unattached redshirt and back-up wrestlers, which resulted in eight Rutgers wrestling representatives bringing home hardware. Rutgers was without two of their leaders, Mike Van Brill (149) and John Poznanski (184), who would have both been in contention for podium spots.
Wrestling unattached, redshirt freshmen Joey Olivieri and Tony White finished in what was arguably their toughest test in their young college careers.
Olivieri went 4 – 2 in the tournament, finishing 5th place at 133-lbs. In route to his 5th place medal, Olivieri knocked off two former NCAA qualifiers. His two losses of the tournament were both by a two-point margin, and came at the hands of multiple-time national qualifiers Drew Mattin of Michigan and No. 6 Micky Phillippi of Pitt.
Tony White was just as impressive, showing the future of Rutgers wrestling is bright between him and Olivieri. White outscored his competition 18 – 4, on his way to a fourth place finish. White also dropped his two losses of the tournament by two points each. White was defeated by No. 27 Anthony Artalona of UPenn in the fourth-place match, and fell 2 – 0 to the eventual champion, No. 10 Josh Heil of Campbell, in the 149-lb semi-final.
As fun as it was to see Olivieri and White have impressive showings, Sebastian Rivera and Greg Bulsak stole the show, with both wrestlers winning the tournament at their respective weight classes.
Sebastian Rivera was absolutely dominate on his way to the top of the podium. Rivera had bonus point victories in all four of his matches as he cruised to a first-place finish. Rivera secured a pin in the opening round, followed by a technical-fall in the quarters, and a major decision in the semi-finals. Rivera capped off his tournament with a technical-fall over UPenn’s CJ Composto, winning 18 – 3.
Rutgers other champion, Greg Bulsak, showed the world that he is a threat for the NCAA crown, with two statement wins on day two of the tournament. Bulsak had two major-decisions on day one, which set him up for a semi-final match with highly-touted freshman, No. 26 Braxton Amos.
Bulsak controlled the most of the action against Amos, leading 6 – 0 for a majority of the match. Late in the third period, Amos scored a takedown as time was winding down, but it was too-little-too-late for the freshman, as Bulsak earned a 6 – 2 victory. The win would advance Bulsak to the finals against 2021 NCAA finalist, Nico Bonaccorsi, of Pitt.
Bonaccorsi struck first with a takedown in the first period. An eventual escape would lead to Bulsak trailing 2 – 1 going into the second period. Bulsak chose defense, and took the lead after a Bonaccorsi locking-hands call, and a Bulsak escape shortly after.
Given Bulsak’s top prowess, Bonaccorsi chose neutral to start the third period, hoping to win the match with a third period takedown. Bonaccorsi took several shot attempts, but Bulsak was able to fend off each one of them, leading to a 3 – 2 decision to win the tournament.
Along with Rivera, Bulsak, Olivieri, and White, four other Scarlet Knights found the podium at the Matmen Open. Dylan Shawver finished 5th at 125, Connor O’Neill took 6th at 174, Al DeSantis placed 7th at 149, and Boone McDermott finished 8th at Heavyweight. The eight placers gave Rutgers a fifth place finish as a team in the tournament.
Even though there were many bright spots throughout out the tournament for Rutgers, there were two causes of concern for the Scarlet Knights as they head into conference dual meet portion of their season.
Sammy Alvarez went down with an apparent ankle injury in his quarter-final match against Lehigh’s Carter Bailey. Alvarez rolled his ankle while trying to defend a Bailey takedown attempt. Alvarez would continue the match, but was pinned shortly after action resumed. Alvarez would not wrestle the remainder of the tournament.
In addition to Alvarez’s injury, Rutgers’ All-American, Jackson Turley, may still be dealing with some nagging injuries himself. Turley made is highly-anticipated return to the mat, but dropped his opening bout in overtime against Princeton’s Nate Dugan. Turley would go on to win his next two matches, putting him in the Thursday morning round of the wrestlebacks. However, Turley did not wrestle on the second day of the tournament, indicating he may still be dealing with some lingering injuries.
There is no word yet on the status of Alvarez or Turley, but Rutgers cannot afford to have them out of the lineup for a long period of time. Three of the next four dual meets for Rutgers are against ranked opponents. The lone unranked team in that mix is Indiana, who will not be easy to knock-off with two top wrestlers out of the lineup.
TKR will have more on Alvarez and Turley’s statuses for Rutgers’ match with Indiana on January 7th as the week progresses.
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