Faced with living up to one of Hopkins wrestling's most successful campaigns in 2010-2011, the Blue Jays were off to a difficult 1-7 start this year despite returning many of its core members, including NCAA tournament qualifiers juniors Paul Marcello and Reid Mosquera.
The early season woes were partially due to one of Division III's most demanding schedules, having dueled with several Division I and nationally ranked D-III counterparts. Even so, the Blue Jays' talent was evident.
On Nov. 19th at the Red Dragon Invitational, Hopkins's ability finally shone through with a third-place finish.
The match was highlighted by Marcello's individual title in the 141-pound division, and eight other Jays placed in the top five in their respective weight classes. Only host Cortland State and RIT placed ahead of the Jays.
Marcello dominated his competition early in the tournament as the top seeded 141-pounder.
He cruised through Scranton with a pin, RIT 16-3, and 10-2 against Niagara Community College before defeating second-seeded senior Cinjin Goewey of Southern Maine, 6-3. The individual title was Marcello's fourth of his career.
Behind Marcello's effort were two second-place finishes coming from Mosquera in the 197-pound division and sophomore Henry Stauber in the 149-pound bout.
Both fell in the championship round, Stauber — the top seed — falling to Oneonta State junior Matt Eberlin, 7-2.
Mosquera, the second seed and currently ranked ninth in the nation in his weight class, toppling to sixth-ranked and top-seeded junior Jared Myhrberg of Cortland State, 3-1.
Mosquera has now advanced to the final match of his last four regular season tournaments dating back to the 2010-2011 season.
Hopkins received a pair of third-place finishes from freshman Paul Bewak at 125 pounds and sophomore Duncan Crystal at 131.
Bewak was 5-1 on the weekend, his lone loss coming to Cortland State freshman Nigel McNeil, 15-0. McNeil went on to capture the 125-pound championship.
Crystal also went 5-1 at the Invitational and did so as an unranked competitor prior to his first match, one of just three unranked wrestlers to finish in the top-three in their weight division.
Crystal fell in the second round to Goewey from Southern Maine but made an impressive run through the consolation bracket with wins over Gettysburg, 10-3; WPI, pin; Niagara CC, 6-3, and Cortland State, 6-5.
Rounding out the top-five finishes for the Blue Jays were sophomore Matt Fusaro's fourth-place finish at 157 pounds, freshman Evan Johnson's fifth-place finish at 174 pounds, and freshman Stephen Pagliuca's fifth-place finish at 141 pounds.
Fusaro, the two-seed, advanced to the semi-finals before falling to freshman Irvin Buck of Niagara CC.
His biggest win came in the consolation bracket semi-finals against Wilkes, 17-2, his second technical fall victory of his career.
The season has been rough so far, but expect these experienced wrestlers to step it up in the coming weeks.
Hopkins hopes this solid weekend in New York will propel them to a similar showing on December 2nd when the Jays face off in the Petrofes Tournament at host Messiah College.
