Meet results
Team standings
EWING, N.J. --- Elizabethtown College finished third out of nine teams at the Metropolitan Conference wrestling championships, hosted Sunday by The College of New Jersey. The Blue Jays had two individual champions and six placewinners en route to scoring 72.5 points, as the host Lions captured the team title with 110 points followed by Wilkes University with 93 points.
Three Blue Jays earned berths to the NCAA Division III Championships, as 2009 All-American
Tyler Erdman won his second straight conference championship at 125 pounds and
Tye Boyer won the title at 149 pounds to earn automatic bids, while
Bill Meaney received one of three wild-card slots available to the conference after finishing as runner-up at 197 pounds. The NCAA Division III Championships will be held March 5-6 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Boyer was named Co-Rookie of the Year with Brian Broderick of College of New Jersey, while Blue Jay head coach
Eric Walker was named Coach of the Year and
Dan Bechtold shared Assistant Coach of the Year honors with Joe Pollard of TCNJ.
Eric Walker was named Metropolitan Conference Coach of the Year
Also placing for the Blue Jays were
Jim Gentile, who was third at 174 pounds,
Paul Connor, who took third at 184 pounds, and
Mike Daub, who was fourth at 285 pounds.
Erdman improved to 22-1 on the season and 55-7 in his career by earning two technical falls and a major decision in his three bouts. He opened action with a 22-6 technical fall of Adlee Fayyaz of New York University in 5:11, then posted an 11-3 major decision over Dan Franke of TCNJ in the semifinals. In the finals, Erdman needed just 2:14 to pick up a 17-0 technical fall of Scott Mantua of Wilkes to capture the championship.
Boyer (18-6) cruised into the finals with pins of Tom Manning of the University of Scranton (2:24) in the quarterfinals and John Stillo of Centenary College in the semifinals (2:55). In the finals, Boyer knocked off top-seeded Anthony Dattolo of Wilkes 4-2 to punch his ticket to the NCAA championships.
Meaney (23-8) competed in a first-round bout at 197 and posted a 17-2 technical fall in 5:44 of Scranton's Nicholas Genovese, before claiming decisions in the quarterfinals (3-2 over Jamie Myers of NYU) and semifinals (5-3 over Adam Koziol of TCNJ). However, Zach Pizarro of Wilkes defeated Meaney 9-4 in the finals.
Gentile advanced to the semifinals in the championship bracket at 174 pounds before falling 2-0 to eventual champion Frank Heffernan of Wilkes. Gentile moved into the third-place match via medical forfeit, then picked up a 16-5 major decision over David Foley of King's College to earn third place.
At 184, Connor lost in the semifinals to Mike Denver of TCNJ, but recovered to earn a 6-4 decision over Sabino Galassi in the consolation semifinals and a 4-1 decision over Robert Klotz of Hunter in the finals to take home third place.
Daub advanced to the semifinals at 285 pounds before dropping into the consolation bracket, where he defeated Tom Fitzpatrick of York 12-5 in the semifinals before being edged 4-3 by Christopher Rash of King's in the third-place match.