Alvarenga (Springfield, Va./Thomas Edison) improved his overall record to 17-2 on the season with his march to the title, as his 95 career wins place him eighth on the career wins list. His run on Sunday began with a forfeit victory against Michigan State's Eddie Skowneski, while he advanced with a 3-0 decision over Braden Bair. Next up was an 11-6 decision over Liberty's Aaron Kelley, followed by a closely contested 3-2 win against Navy's Joel Ahern, giving Alvarenga a berth into the quarterfinals. In that match, extra time was needed before Alvarenga claimed a 3-1 win in sudden victory over Boston's Mike Roberts. In the semifinals, Alvarenga again posted a sudden victory win over Indiana's Kurt Kinser, this time by a 7-5 margin. The championship pitted Alvarenga against Penn State freshman Dan Vallimont, as the VMI senior took the title with a 10-5 victory.
"Sam has really wrestled well ever since dropping that second match at the Keystone Classic a couple of weeks ago," said Trudgeon. "He has really turned it around since then. He's wrestling hungry and has become a lot more aggressive."
Meanwhile, fellow senior Scott Buhman was wrestling his way to seventh place in the heavyweight division, running up a 6-2 record on the day to improve to 14-5 overall. After dropping a second round match to eventual third-place finisher Spencer Nadolsky of UNC, Buhman won four straight matches, including a pin in 3:16 against Michigan State's Alex Strachan and an 11-4 win against Columbia's Kevin Lester, before falling by a 6-4 margin to Liberty's Patrick Walker. Buhman then received a medical forfeit against Cleveland State's Rashard Goff to secure the seventh place showing.
At 184 lbs., senior Corry Murray, competing in his first tournament of the season, posted a 4-2 first round decision over Duke's Dan Fox, before falling to eventual second-place finisher Brent Chriswell of Purdue. In the consolation bracket, Murray posted four straight victories, including a pair of 3-2 decisions as well as a 3-1 victory, before dropping his final two matches of the day to fall to eighth place.
"Corry has probably practiced about a week or so of full matches, so he's still getting up to speed," said Trudgeon. "He's been going at it hard, and he's not quite back to 100% with that ankle, but we're hoping he will be soon. He pulled out a lot of close, hard-fought matches up there, which is great to see. Scott wrestled well enough to place and showed the aggressiveness that he lacked Friday night. As a team, I think that we're starting to put it together hopefully. I think that all of our guys will start feeding off of the success that our leaders had this weekend, as we look to have a big match this Friday (against Gardner-Webb). Hopefully we'll get a few of our guys back healthy, and there will be a lot of good, tight matches in that one."
Other competitors for the Keydets included Brandon Franklin at 141 (0-1 record on the day), Tommy Cunningham (1-2) at 157, and Dustin McCabe (3-2) and Kyle Elgert (0-1) at 174.
The Keydets return to action on Friday evening, as they compete in their second dual match of the season at Gardner-Webb at 7 p.m.
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