GRANTHAM, Penn. -- The Bridgewater State College wrestling team placed 9th at the Messiah Petrofes Invitational on Saturday. The Bears tallied 69.5 points for the two-day tournament which featured a total of 13 teams. Wilkes University took home top honors with a 165.0 point total.
Junior Frank Cammisa was the Bears' top wrestler at the tournament. The Danbury, Connecticut native advanced all the way to the finals of the 149-pound weight class before bowing to Paul LeBlanc of Cortland State in the championship match, 2-0, in sudden victory overtime.
Cammisa, seeded second in his weight class, went 4-1 at the tournament with one pin. He defeated sixth seeded Mike Bressler of host Messiah, 5-0, in the semifinals to advance to the championship bout against the top-seeded LeBlanc.
Senior John Marsh (New Bedford, MA) also wrestled very well in the 149-pound bracket losing only to LeBlanc in the semifinals. Seeded fifth, Marsh went 5-1 with four pins which included a win by fall (4:53) over fourth seeded Erik Smith of Wilkes University in the third place match.
Unseeded junior Jeff Esposti (Brookfield, CT) made some noise in the 184-pound weight class as he also advanced to the semifinals. Esposti, who posted a record of 3-2 with a pair of pins, dropped a 7-4 semifinal decision to number one seed Josh Bloom of Brockport State. After pinning fourth seeded Hector Cintron of Johns Hopkins in the wrestleback, Esposti lost to number three seed Buddy Gouger of Wilkes, 3-1, in the third place match.
Sophomore Ethan Raymond (Middlebury, VT) was the Bears' only other place-winner as he finished in seventh place wrestling out of the 157-pound weight class. Raymond posted a record of 5-2 at the tournament.