Ithaca Wrestling Dominates Foes, Wins Conference Championship Tournament http://t.co/G0VZyzmZ6b
— Ithaca Bombers (@BomberSports) January 19, 2014
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- The Ithaca College wrestling team claimed the team championship and had three individual weight-class champions among six finalists on a successful day at the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Championships hosted by Lycoming College. Ithaca scored 142.5 team points and finished 18.5 points ahead of second-place Cortland. It's the eighth team championship for the Bombers at the ECWC Championships, which began in 1992. Weight class champions for the Bombers were Alex Gomez at 133 pounds, Eamonn Gaffney at 149 pounds and Kristopher Schimek at 165.
2014 ECWC Champions pic.twitter.com/mcxesU0Rdh
— Ithaca College Wrestling (@IthacaWrestling) January 18, 2014
Gomez was the top-seeded wrestler and won all three of his bouts convincingly, earning bonus team points with each victory. In the quarterfinals, Gomez scored an 18-4 major decision, then posted a win by pin at 2:57 in the semifinals. In the championship bout, Gomez won a 21-5 technical fall in 6:10 over Sean Hanson of Oneonta. Gomez is ranked second by both the NWCA and d3wrestle.com and earned the tournament's Most Outstanding Wrestler honor.
At 149, Gaffney received a bye to the quarterfinal round, where he posted a 3-1 decision win over Jordan Dyer of Brockport. In the semifinals, Gaffney advanced via medical forfeit over the tournament's top seed, Brad Mayville of RIT. Gaffney then scored a 4-2 decision victory over a wrestler from Oswego in the event finals.
Schimek won a tightly-contested event final with a 6-5 decision win in the second tiebreaker period over Roy Daniels of Brockport, who is ranked fourth nationally by d3wrestle.com. Schimek won his quarterfinal bout by a 13-2 major decision and then got a forfeit victory in the semifinals to advance to the championship.
At 141 pounds, Nick Wahba received a bye to the quarterfinals and pinned his first opponent in 6:58 and then posted a 4-3 decision win in the semifinals. He dropped the final by 11-6 decision against the top-seeded wrestler in the bracket.
Dan Glinko went to the finals in the 184 pound bracket and dropped a 7-4 decision against Greg Wetzel of Lycoming. Glinko won three bouts to advance to the finals, including two by first-period pin. His first-round victory came at 2:00 and his semifinal win was at 1:00. He also had a 7-5 decision win.
At heavyweight, Shane Bartrum advanced to the finals by virtue of three wins by decision. He scored a 10-3 win in the first round, an 8-4 win in the quarterfinals and a 4-3 victory in the semifinals. In the event finals, Bartrum lost 4-2 in the second sudden-victory period against nationally-ranked Lance Moore of Cortland.
Other place-winners for Ithaca included Jimmy Kaishian who was fourth at 125 pounds, Kevin Collins who was sixth at 157, Steven Sabella in fourth at 174, Liam Korbul in fifth at 184, Zack Conner in fifth at 197 and Cris Ramirez who was sixth at heavyweight.
TEAM SCORES
1. ITHACA - 142.5
2. Cortland - 124
3. Brockport - 123
t4. Oneonta - 101.5
t4. Lycoming - 101.5
6. RIT - 54.5
7. Alfred State - 32.5
8. Oswego - 26