Rider senior Ed Bordas (Montgomery, NY/Valley Central), ranked 18th in the nation, and sophomore Tyler Smith (Phillipsburg, N.J./Belvidere), ranked 19th in the nation, won my major decisions to give Rider the come-from-behind victory. "The majors helped, big time," Taylor said, "the two big guys coming through."
Smith improves to 12-6 with the victory. "Tyler has his confidence up," Taylor said. "He is wrestling like the kid we recruited. We knew he was capable of this. He has a lot of ways to hurt you, to score various points. And he always has the capability to pin you as well."
Red-shirt freshman Zac Cibula (Luxenburg, Wis./Casco) was trailing before winning 9-5 to cut the Army (0-2) lead to 16-14, and junior Rob Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) won the final bout for the victory.
"Zac and Robbie both had a nice finish," Taylor said. "Zac was trailing with 18 seconds left and took the kid down and put him to his back. If he doesn't win that one it wouldn't matter what Robbie did. They both finished the match out."
Cibula, who was in the same weight class as two-time national qualifier Michael Kessler (Randallstown, MD/Owings Mills) last year, red-shirted his first year at Rider and is 8-5 this season. "Zac is doing very well this year," Taylor said. "He's a very competitive kid. He really hates to lose and he wrestles hard."
Cibula was a four-time Wisconsin State Champion at Luxenburg High School, where he compiled a 195-11 record. "He won a lot in high school and now he's winning a lot in college right now," Taylor said. "I'm very pleased with the way he is wrestling. He works hard and wrestles hard and is very coachable."
Kessler, who moved down a weight this year, lost to Army's Matt Kyler, an All-American two years ago who is currently ranked 10th in the nation.
Junior Ilyass Elmsaouri (Camp Hill, PA/Cedar Cliff) also won to give Rider (3-3) an 11-6 lead. "Ilyass pulled out a match which really helped us," Taylor said.
Rider freshman Jim Resnick (Media, Pa./Penncrest) lost the opening bout 7-6. "I feel bad for Jimmy," Taylor said. "He out-wrestled the kid for five minutes and had him beat but got turned in the third period and couldn't get out of it. But he's showing a lot of improvement. By the end of this year he is going to be very good."
The Broncs are now off until the prestigious Midlands Tournament December 29-30.
Results:
174: Ryan Mergen (A) dec. Jim Resnick, 7-6 0-3
184: Colin Wittmeyer (A) dec. Joe Ferber, 5-1 0-6
197: #19 Tyler Smith (R) major dec. Casey Hedash, 13-3 4-6
285: Ed Bordas (R) major dec. Alan Lutterman, 10-2 8-6
125: Ilyass Elmsaouri (R) dec. Lance Penhale, 2-1 11-6
133: Jordan Thome (A) dec. Jimmy Kirchner, 8-5 11-9
141: Casey Thome (A) major dec. Aaron Nestor, 15-2 11-13
149: #10 Matt Kyler (A) dec. Michael Kessler, 10-3 11-16
157: Zac Cibula (R) dec. Rudy Chelednik, 9-5 14-16
165: Rob Morrison (R) dec. Eric Gobin, 2-0 17-16
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