"It was fun, it was a neat atmosphere," said head coach Scott Goodale. "I would like to have seen some more wrestling, but I think because of the atmosphere, this was the first time that a lot of our guys were wrestling in front of a crowd like that, which is why we have to continue to compete in these situations. I knew they would be tight, both teams wrestled tight, so it made for kind of a boring match, but the bottom line is a win is a win and we are certainly on our way to building something."
Seniors Matt Pletcher (Eastampton, N.J.) and Mike Whalen (Lake Hiawatha, N.J.) both moved up in the RU record books with victories. Whalen picked up his 71st career victory to pull into a tie for 23rd place, while Pletcher is in 26th-place with 70 career wins. Freshman Scott Winston (Jackson, N.J.) picked up his team-leading 32nd win of the season.
RU opened the match with six quick points, as Rider forfeited at 125. The two teams went back and forth in the next three bouts, as sophomore Mike Demarco (Lyndhurst, N.J.) fell at 133, 1-0, freshman Trevor Melde (Hewitt, N.J.) won at 141 by a final score of 3-0 and junior Kellen Bradley (Newton, N.J.), in his first dual action of the season, fell 3-2 at 149.
But RU won the next three matches, as Winston pulled out a 3-2 victory at 157, Pletcher earned a 3-2 come-from-behind overtime win at 165 and Whalen won decisively at 174, 8-3. Trailing 18-6, Rider fought back, winning the last three contests. Sophomore McPaul Ogbonna (East Hanover, N.J.) fought hard against the No. 6 ranked 184-pounder, Doug Umbehauer, but fell 20-7. Redshirt junior Karim Mahmoud (Wallington, N.J.) fell 7-5 in overtime at 197 and redshirt sophomore DJ Russo (Netcong, N.J.) lost in the heavyweight bout, 6-2.
"For Ogbonna not to get pinned against the No. 6 ranked wrestler was huge for us," said Goodale. "It was about saving points. Even Russo took one from the team, not going on the bottom where he's good on the mat, but his opponent is very good on top and we did not want to give him a chance on top. It was four or five minutes of boring wrestling on their feet, and DJ didn't win the bout, but he stayed off his back and those are the little things you have to do when you are in a close dual meet."
The 4,067 fans is a program-record for the Scarlet Knights, who last wrestled at the RAC during the 2001 season, falling to Oklahoma 38-3. The win is the first for RU wrestling at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.
"When you have 4,000 fans behind you it makes it a lot easier to wrestle," said Winston. "They are getting after the other guy and rooting you on and it just makes you want to wrestle that much harder."
"It was great, there were lot of alumni here and the fans were into it," said Goodale. "It was neat to see. It was great to see them come out, we just have to get more comfortable wrestling in this type of situation, and the better we get at it the more open we'll be and the harder we'll wrestle when we do compete in front of crowds like that."
Rutgers picked up its third all-time victory over Rider, beating the Broncs for the first time since the 2002-03 season. With the victory, RU ended a five-match losing streak against its in-state rival.
RU returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 7, when it faces American at the College Ave. Gym at 5:00 p.m. Four of the top high schools in New Jersey (Jackson Memorial, Brearley, Brick Memorial and Eastern Regional) will wrestle prior to RU-AU bout.
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