Rutgers Wrestling comes together for first Big Ten win of the year
It has been well documented at this point, almost to nauseum, that a good portion of the Rutgers wrestling lineup is young and inexperienced. In fact, it was the first Big Ten conference dual ever for five of the starters in the lineup. That type of inexperience, mixed in with some nagging injuries Rutgers has been dealing with as of late, are not exactly ideal ingredients for success. Despite a little adversity, Rutgers came together to defeat the Maryland Terrapins 28 – 11, thanks to a tremendous team effort.
“I thought we came out of the gates really, really well. So much for the whole freshman thing. They wrestled really hard tonight”, Coach Scott Goodale said acknowledging his team’s youth and effort.
Rutgers certainly did start off strong, as the Scarlet Knights had the Rutgers faithful on their feet after the first bout.
Action started at 125–pounds, where Nic Aguilar took on New Jersey native, Brandon Cray. Aguilar, who has been one of Rutgers best wrestlers thus far, traded takedowns and escapes with Cray in the first period. In the second period, Cray chose to go on defense, putting Aguilar on top where he has been dominant.
Off a Cray sit out attempt, Aguilar sunk in a bar-and-half combination, rolled it through, and put Cray to his back. With Cray’s feet sticking up in the air, the official slapped a mat and the 5,400+ fans in the RAC jumped to their feet.
“I’m not going to lie, in the beginning I was pretty nervous. First time in the RAC with all of those fans and everything”, Aguilar admitted regarding his home debut. However, it did not take long for the California native to settle in. “As soon as I got set in and real comfortable with the arena and the mat, I started calming down a bit and getting to what I do”.
Aguilar was followed up by Sammy Alvarez, who had a dominant victory over a formidable opponent in King Sandoval. Then Jojo Aragona came back from injury to gut out a gritty 2-0 win.
Capping off the four-match streak of victories for Rutgers was Gerard Angelo at 149.
Angelo was in what most would consider a toss-up bout against Maryland’s Michael Doetsch. The first period between the two grapplers would go scoreless, and Angelo would start the second period on top. Like Aguilar, Angelo has proved to be dangerous on top, and he showed his prowess once again tonight. On the edge of the mat, Angelo hit a nearside cradle, and quickly put Doetsch to his back for a second period fall.
“Ultra dangerous. He is so dangerous, it is awesome”, Goodale said when asked about Angelo’s ability. “He’s good on top. There’s been a lot of moments, so far this year, where he has thrown guys to his back. At this level, that’s a hard thing to do”.
Angelo’s former high school teammate, Joe Grello, returned from injury as well. The 2019 NCAA qualifier took on Phillip Spadafora in a battle between nationally ranked 174-pounders. Grello only wrestled two matches this season, both of which were at Rutgers home opening quad meet in the first week of November. Fans were eager to see what Grello would look like coming off of injury, and how he would hold up against a rank foe in his first match back.
“I feel a little rusty, it’s been about a month (out with an injury)”, Grello said about his return to the mat.
Thanks to a first period counter-attack, Grello jumped out to an early lead. Grello, who is known for keeping matches tight, only added an escape to the score board, but his three points were enough for the victory. Grello downed Spadafora 3-2, all but sealing the dual meet win for his team. Though it was a quality win, Grello understood he has more work to do.
“I think it was a great warm up match. (Spadafora) wrestled a couple of ranked matches already, he beat a couple of ranked guys, it felt good”, said Grello when asked about his opponent. “I have a lot to do, a lot of work to put through, but overall, a win is a win”.
Billy Janzer and Christian Colucci added two more wins for the Scarlet Knights, which led to a 28-12 Rutgers victory. A Big Ten win is always great to have heading into the holiday tournament season. Goodale was pleased with his team’s effort, but he knows this is just the tip of the iceberg for Rutgers wrestling.
“We’ll get better. We have to get better in a lot of different positions, but I felt for the most part we were really aggressive, and we were really good on top tonight – that has me fired up”, said Goodale.
Rutgers wrestling will be back in action in 2020 at the Southern Scuffle. The New Year’s Day tournament is widely regarded as one of the top college tournaments in the country. It will be a great measuring stick to see where these young wrestlers stack up against some of the country’s best.
