GORHAM, Maine – Five wrestlers placed and the American International College wrestling team took fifth overall out of 12 teams at the Ted Reese Invitational, hosted by the University of Southern Maine on Saturday, December 3.
AIC's top finishers were Tommy Nicholas at 149 and Jack MacKiernan at 184; both placed third. Aaron Morocho and Justin Osler took fifth at 133 and 184, respectively, while Shamar Schand finished sixth at 133 to round out AIC's placing contingent.
Nichols ultimately went 5-1 on the day, opening with a 7-1 decision over Kaden Gransbury of Castleton. Gransbury's teammate, Elijah Cyr, then defeated Nichols 7-5. Nichols rebounded to beat Andrew Brevot of RPI in a 13-4 major decision and then pinned WPI's Zachery Rioux at 2:41. That set up a rematch with Cyr, and this time Nichols was the victory, winning in extra time to take the bronze.
Like Nichols, MacKiernan started with a win, taking out Connecticut's Joey Ryan 7-2 before defeating David Gibson of WPI; MacKiernan led 10-6 in the third when Gibson withdrew due to injury. Castleton's Sampson Wilkins edged out MacKiernan in the semifinal, 3-2, but he rebounded to take out Josh Negron, also of Castleton, with a 14-2 major decision. In the third-place bout, he defeated Ryan Fredette of Maine Maritime.
Osler started with a 7-3 win against Timothy Smale of Southern Maine before Wilkins pinned him at 1:28; he defeated WPI's Christian Andres, scoring a reversal and ultimately pinning Andres at 3:51. Osler then defeated his teammate Matt Bremner 8-2 before being pinned by Fredette in the consolation semifinals before defeating Negron for fifth place.
Morocho's day started with a 5-0 win over Joey Martin of the Coast Guard Academy before a 16-3 major decision defeat against Andrew Marchese of Castleton. He then won 8-4 over Castleton's Caleb Massari, before overcoming a slow start to pin Liam Knight of Southern Maine at 3:27. Ethan Ford of Southern Maine defeated Morocho 6-3 in the consolation semifinal, and that set up Morocho and Schand to battle for fifth, which Morocho won 10-6.
Schand opened with a solid 13-5 major decision win over Connor Doran of WPI, with several reversals and takedowns before coming just short of a pin at the very end. However, he was then majored by Ford, 16-4, before winning a thrilling 14-11 decision over Martin. He then won a 19-4 technical fall at 5:00 against Nick Savariego of Plymouth State, but Marchese won 17-0 in the consolation semifinals to put Schand into the fifth-place match against his teammate.
Overall, the team won 33 bouts on the day, including eight by fall; 12 of AIC's 13 competitors won at least one match, with nine winning two or more.
The team will return to action for its home opener on Friday, December 9 against Hunter College at 6:00 p.m.
