Unbeaten Trio: All three seeded wrestlers keep title hopes alive
PHILADELPHIA — Jarod Trice is well known for his cockiness.
The junior from Highland Park isn’t afraid to let feelings for his opponents known. Even better, he is pretty good at backing it up.
But on Thursday at Wells Fargo Center, the 285-pounder found himself close to losing on two separate occasions during the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.
149 pounds: Donny Corby L, 9-0 vs. No. 4 Kyle Dake (Cornell) W, 5-4 vs. Matt Lester (Oklahoma)
174 pounds: No. 6 Ben Bennett W, 8-0 vs. Alex Caruso (Rutgers) W, 16-2 vs. Curran Jacobs (Michigan State)
Heavyweight: No. 2 Jarod Trice W, 3-1 (OT) vs. Joshua Wine (VMI) W, 3-2 (2OT) vs. Ricardo Alcala (Indiana)
Trice, who entered the tournament a No. 2 seed, was one of three CMU wrestlers to advance to the quarterfinal round Friday, but it sure didn’t come easy.
The 2010 All-American found himself in a 0-0 tie with Virginia Military Institute’s Joshua Wine after the first period in the first round, and trailing 1-0 after the second.
An escape in the third tied the score, but Trice was unable to pull off the win in regulation time.
The two went to overtime, where Trice dragged a crawling Wine into the circle and recorded a takedown for the win, surviving a first-round scare.
“I think Jarod’s pushing the pace in a lot of those matches, he’s just not able to get a takedown,” said CMU head coach Tom Borrelli. “I like the way he’s being aggressive. I don’t think he’s been in danger of losing either match, he just needs to be a little more focused on getting that takedown.”
His quarterfinal match, against Indiana’s Ricardo Alcala, proved to be even tougher. After taking a 1-0 lead in the second period, Alcala tied the match with an escape late in the third, sending Trice into his second overtime match of the day.
After neither wrestler scored in the first overtime, Trice was the first to record an escape in a tiebreaker. Alcala answered in his tiebreaker attempt, but Trice finished it off during the second timebreaker.
“We do this every day,” Trice said of possible fatigue from two overtime matches. “We wrestle six to seven matches every other day during practice – 11 minute-matches, sometimes 15. I do this every day and I believe in it. That’s what getting me through these matches.”
Trice will wrestle No. 10 Nathan Fernandez (Oklahoma) in the quarterfinals today.
Sentes, Bennett cruise
In addition to Trice, junior Scotti Sentes and sophomore Ben Bennett also reached today’s quarterfinal round.
Sentes scored shutout decisions over both opponents, beating West Virginia’s Nathan Pennesi 7-0. Sentes scored early with a takedown and dominated much of the match, accumulating 5:05 in riding time.
In his second match, the 133-pounder got the confidence boost he needed in beating No. 6 Tony Ramos (Iowa).
“As the matches go on, you just get better and better,” Sentes said. “You get get past those first round jitters. Last year, I didn’t know how much I really wanted to be here. This year, I do. I think my mentality on the whole competition thing has changed a lot.”
Sentes faces No. 3 Andrew Long (Penn State) in the quarters.
Bennett dominated both of his Day 1 matches, beating both opponents by a combined score of 24-2.
The 174-pounder won an 8-0 major decision against Rutgers’ Alex Caruso and 16-2 major decision over Michigan State’s Curran Jacobs.
“I wrestled all these guys during the season and a lot of matches were 1-0,” Bennett said. “At the national championships, you don’t want to give them a lot of hopes. I had a lead and I decided to build on it.”
Bennett meets No. 3 Matt Lewenes (Cornell) today.
