David Dennis, Ben Ersing, and Sam Campbell were the only Generals to win matches yesterday at the 2010 Centennial Conference Championships. Dennis lost a 1 takedown match with top 10 ranked, and now 3-time national qualifier Dan Twito of the champion Merchant Marines in the 157 final to finish 2nd. Dennis was selected as an alternate to the NCAA tourney in two weeks. Dennis started the day off with a pin over Gettysburg in 2 minutes, then advancing to the finals with a 0:28 pin over Johns Hopkins to reach Twito in the finals. His two pins were monumental in helping us finish 6th, our 2nd best finish ever in the conference. Muhlenberg took 7th, while Gettysburg took 8th.
Ben Ersing had an up and down day, but managed to make it to the medal rounds, taking 4th place. Sam Campbell was in no doubt the deepest bracket in the tournament, receiving the 5 seed (if you read my previous posts, I told you that anything can happen regardless of sense), and despite wrestling very well, was unable to make it back to the 3rd place match. Both Sam and Ben were extremely close to finishing better, but each made one or two very costly mistakes.
Dennis and Ersing are both 2-time placers now, and along with Campbell, should be named Academic All Americans this year as well. These three sophomores lead the team in every statistic, and though none finished where they had hoped, each had very good seasons and will no doubt return stronger next year. I'm very proud to coach these terrific young men, and their leadership will be a major factor in this program's future success.
I'd also like to thank the numerous alumni and parents who were there cheering us on, and hopefully some of you out there who may have watched the finals online. Thank you so much for your support!
I'd write more, but our bus didn't get in until almost 4 am this morning, and I still haven't been to sleep, so it's time for me to hit the sack and hopefully unwind. Check out the link for d3wrestle for bracket results. I will update the final season statistics tomorrow morning and they should be posted by noon.
