Bridgewater and Rhode Island share RWU Title

Bridgewater State College and Rhode Island College shared the team title at the Roger Williams invitational, each notching 139 points to beat third place Southern Maine by 7.5 points. Rhode Island College had three champs, led by #1 Mike Bonora at 141, who rolled to a technical fall over Wesleyan’s Kyle Baicker-McKee. Freshman Kevin Sutherland kept Rhode Island rolling with a win at 149, and he defeated #10 Frank Cammisa of Bridgewater State in the semifinals. Finally, Kevin Davis won at 197 for Rhode Island for their third championship out of four finalists. Travis Drappi fell to Nate Recoulle of WNEC in the 133 pound final. Head Coach Jay Jones of Rhode Island was pleased with his team’s performance. “Most of all I am excited that our team put in the effort and maintained a cohesive and excited attitude throughout the day. It was great to see the enthusiasm they had for each other; it was infectious.” As to his champs, Jones had this to say, “Michael Bonora showed why is ranked number one in the country at 141. He gets after it on his feet, and has focused on riding in order to improve himself at the national level. Kevin Davis won his first college tournament, and immediately talked about how he should have wrestled better. He provided us with great leadership. Freshman Kevin Sutherland has been working with Bonora in the wrestling room, and one thing about this kid is that he didn’t care who he was wrestling, he never takes himself out of position. He is a quiet kid, but the team seemed to really rally around his performance.”

Bridgewater State had a single champion in #9 James Quinlan at 184, but had nine overall top six finishes to tie Rhode Island for the title. For his efforts, Quinlan was awarded the Most Outstanding Upperweight Wrestler, while Recoulle of WNEC won the award for lightweights.

In the other finals, Carl Anderson of WPI squeaked by Jon Reyes of USM at 125 by a 3-2 margin. Pete Reilly of Johnson & Wales got past USM’s Mark Moyer 2-1 at 157 while Moyer’s teammate Mike Morin defeated the host school’s Dan Zotollo 5-3 at 165. Greg Hurd of Wesleyan won in another close final 4-3 over Jared Czarneski of Roger Williams at 184. Finally, 285 saw Sean Jameson default to fellow MIT wrestler Glenn Geesman to wrap up the finals. See some pictures from Rhode Island College below.

Results of the 2007 RWU Invitational