No. 7 Matt Mariacher recorded a second-place effort at 141 lbs. to lead the No. 7 American University wrestling team Saturday at the Brockport/Oklahoma Invitational in Brockport, N.Y. The Eagles finished in sixth place as a team although three of AU's four nationally-ranked wrestlers did not compete in the tournament.
Mariacher paced the Eagles with his runner-up finish, coming up on the short end of a 5-0 decision to #9 Kendric Maple of Oklahoma in the championship. Mariacher began his run with a 2-0 decision over Oklahoma's Scott Chene and a 14-4 major decision against Devin Cook of Clarion. He advanced to the finals with an 8-4 decision over Rutgers' Anthony Perrotti.
Thomas Barreiro finished in third at 184 lbs. as his run began with an injury default win over Maryland's Alex Pagnotta before dropping 13-8 decision against #19 Erich Schmidtke of Oklahoma. Barreiro bounced back to beat Army's Wil Brown, 5-4, and then defeat Maryland's Ty Snook -- 4-3 in the first tiebreaker -- in the consolation championship.
Thomas Williams earned a fourth-place result at 125 lbs. after beginning the tournament with a victory over Brockport's Rocco Russo, 6-0, and a major decision, 10-2, against Army's Scott Filbert. Williams then dropped a 5-4 decision to Shane Gentry of Maryland. Williams rolled 11-0 past David White of Army before coming up on the short end of a 1-0 decision to Rutgers' Vincent Dellafave in the consolation finals.
Kevin Tao recorded a fifth-place result at 149 lbs. as he also started with a pair of wins -- 8-2 over Ryan Bilyeu of Army and 7-4 against Oklahoma's Justin Deangelis. Tao dropped his next two matches, a 3-2 loss to Mario Mason of Rutgers and 11-3 against Daniel Young of Army, before defeating Deangelis again in the fifth-place match, 4-2.
The seventh-ranked Eagles finished in sixth-place in the tournament as No. 18 Oklahoma took home the team title. No. 9 Maryland came in second with No. 14 Rutgers placing third. Army, Clarion, Brockport, and Buffalo also competed at the tournament. AU, however, was without the services of three of its four nationally-ranked wrestlers on Saturday -- No. 2 Ryan Flores, No. 4 Ganbayar Sanjaa, and No. 8 Daniel Mitchell.
The Eagles will return to action next Sunday, November 20 at the Keystone Classic in Philadelphia, Pa.
