"For this time of the year, I'm pretty pleased," said Navy seventh-year head coach Bruce Burnett. "We have some holes in the lineup that we need to fix, but we have the talent to get it done.
"We've won this tournament now three years in a row which is impressive. It's a tough tournament and we had a great overall team effort today. We were missing our top two guys at 133 pounds, so we needed to get some points to fill that void. One guy can't carry the load, so I was pleased with the ability of some of our wrestlers to step up to the challenge."
Senior John Cox (Grand Haven, Mich.) earned his third-consecutive Navy Classic title at 149 pounds by edging Bloomsburg's Matt Moley. Moley held the advantage nearly the entire match before Cox, ranked seventh in the country, was credited with two points for a takedown in the final period to earn the victory. Teammate Joel Ahern (Herkimer, N.Y.) earned third-place recognition with his major decision (12-2) over Rutgers' Jack Barrett. Ahern lost to Barrett in the quarterfinals, 3-1, but the two were paired back up in the wrestlebacks. Ahern jumped out early on Barrett, posting a two-point takedown and a three-point near fall in the opening period. He stretched his lead to 11-1 with the same sequence of moves by the end of the second period.
Pushing his record to 12-1 on the year, junior Matt Stolpinski (Westfield, Mass.) earned an 11-6 win over Binghamton freshman Josh Patterson to win back-to-back Navy Classic titles at 174 pounds. Stolpinski got off to a slow start after taking a finger in the eye in the early minutes. However, the 2006 NCAA Tournament qualifier took a 4-2 lead at the end of the first period on a reversal and never looked back.
Seeded third at 184 pounds, senior Antonio Miranda (Eugene, Ore.) upset top-seeded Nate Shirk of Bloomsburg in the title bout, 9-4. Miranda, who won last year's individual title at 197 pounds, scored the first takedown. Though Shirk knotted the score with back-to-back escapes, Miranda's takedown early in the second period was enough to shift the momentum Navy's way. Teammate Matt Parsons (Dunkirk, Md.) picked up third-place recognition at 184 pounds by posting a 5-1 win over 20th-ranked Chance Litton of West Virginia. The two met in the second round with Parsons earning a 6-4 advantage to move on and it was Parsons who again got the best of Litton in the third-place match.
Navy's final title win of the evening was at the heavyweight division where junior Ed Prendergast (St. Louis, Mo.) scored the winning points with under a minute remaining in regulation over 19th-ranked Mike Spaid of Bloomsburg. Prendergast scored the early takedown, but Spaid knotted the score with a pair of escapes. With 49 seconds remaining in the match, Prendergast took a 3-2 lead with an escape and with just two ticks left on the clock, he scored a two-point takedown for the final 5-2 decision.
Team captain John Jarred (Kansas City, Mo.) picked up a second-place finish at 157 pounds, dropping a tough 4-3 decision to West Virginia's Zac Fryling, the top-seeded wrestler in the weight class. With the match knotted at two apiece, Fryling's takedown in the opening period helped lead him to the title.
Navy also received outstanding efforts from senior Alex Usztics (Dauphin, Pa.) who defeated teammate Matt Pagan (Carteret, N.J.), 8-1, for third place. Senior Brad Canterbury (Blue Bell, Pa.) earned a 7-5 win at 141 pounds to place third, while sophomores Jason Coyne (Trafford, Pa.) (165 lbs), Tyler Moyer (Bremerton, Wash.) (197 lbs) and Scott Steele (Towson, Md.) (HWT) finished fourth in their respective weight classes, while second-year wrestler Philip Neese placed fifth at 197 pounds.
The Midshipmen will be back in action Dec. 1 when they play host to Rutgers in a dual meet beginning at 7:00 pm at Macdonough Hall.
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