Wrestling Club Wrestling News

In their first year back on the mats after a twenty-year hiatus, the Amherst College Wrestling Club placed seventh out of twenty-seven teams at the NCWA Northeast Championships last Saturday in Albany, N.Y.

The day was highlighted by two consecutive championships at the 235- and 285-pound weight classes by seniors Guy Matisis ’09 (Hingham, MA) and Tim Rose ’09 (Richmond, VA) . Matisis and Rose stunned the field, as both claimed victories over the top seeds within their weight class en route to their titles. Navy Prep squeaked ahead of Northampton Community College by one point to claim the team title.

The Amherst Wrestlers all faced both stiff competition and the additional burden of tough seeding, as the young program did not have as many matches or tournament criteria to justify attractive seeds. Nevertheless, Amherst’s wrestlers let their performance on the mats speak to their talent, in particular Matisis and Rose, but also several of the other Amherst grapplers. Key additional team points were contributed by first-years Walter Lehner ’12 (Holderness, N.H.), Ryan Conway ’12 (Manhasset, N.Y.), Gordy Lockbaum ’12 (Worcester, M.A.) and James Williams ’12 (Alexandria, V.A.) at the 141-, 149-, 165- and 197-pound weight classes, respectively.

Williams and Lockbaum battled back through the tournament after losing in the semifinals and finished 7th and 8th, respectively. Conway and Lehner did not place at 149 and 141, two very deep weight classes, but made their victories count with bonus team points earned with falls before getting knocked from contention.

Matisis and Rose will head to the NCWA National Championships in Hampton, VA on March 12-14 to represent Amherst, and wrap up the 2008-09 season, hopefully with another outstanding set of performances.

Amherst would like to congratulate all of the guys for their hard work and perseverance, and send their best wishes to Rose and Matisis as they continue working for a national title.

NCNCWA Northeast Regional Championships Final Team Standings:

The Amherst Wrestling team had a successful week of wrestling in preparation for this weekend’s NCWA New England Conference Championships in Albany.

The team had nine place winners at the competitive NE Championship Tournament held on February 15th at the University of New Hampshire, led by seniors Guy Matisis (champion at 235) and Tim Rose (champion at 285).  Amherst also had three fourth place wrestlers and four fifth places. Amherst placed fourth in the team score, one point shy of Northeastern in third. The Amherst wrestlers overcame some tough seeds and even tougher competition at UNH.

On Wednesday, February 18th, the Amherst wrestling team held its first and only dual meet of its “inaugural” season, coming out on top 40-22 against a tough UMass squad. Even though UMass had a roster weakened by a bout of flu, Amherst showed its strength across several weight classes, led by a pin at 285 by Tim Rose (Senior) and tech falls at 149 by Ryan Conway (Freshman) and at 164 by Gordy Lockbaum (Freshman). Amherst won two of three exhibition matches used to offset UMass forfeits, including a first period pin by Guy Matisis over a highly ranked 197-pound wrestler from UMass.

The match in Alumni Gymnasium, now known as Middleton Gymnasium, was notable for many reasons. In addition to marking wrestling’s return to Amherst after nearly twenty years, it was an event for the entire campus. More than 200 fans came out to see the new Amherst Wrestling Club in action and helped create a perfect atmosphere for the wrestlers to take to their still new purple mats. Coach Eddy Augustin let each wrestler choose a theme song to mark their personal debut, so Middleton Gym rocked with more than grappling prowess.  Coach Augustin commented after the match that “everybody wrestled tough and smart and showed improvement over our performance at UNH.  The energy level was terrific, which I’m sure was due to the large home crowd and everyone’s favorite tunes rocking Middleton gym on their introductions. It was a great night for the wrestling program…we are looking forward to Albany and the Conference Championships.”

Attached is a team photo of the 2009-10 Amherst Wrestling team. Not pictured – Harrison Muskat, Adam Kaye, Charles Anderson and Justin Wiley.

For those of you who are truly wrestling fans, here are the detailed results from the UNH tournament and the UMass dual meet:

NCWA New England Championships 2/15

Final Team Standings:
UNH
UVM
Northeastern
Amherst
UMass
UConn
Bryant
Bentley

Individual Awards:
2 champions – Guy Matisis (235) & Tim Rose (285)
Three 4th place finishes – Nihal Shrinath (125), Ryan Conway (149), James Williams (197)
Four 5th place finishes – Shirui Chen (125), Jareb  Gleckel (141), Walter Lehner (149), Gordy Lockbaum (164)

Amherst vs. UMass 2/18
125 – Shirui Chen (AC) FFT
133 – Spencer Squires (UMass) def Nihal Shrinath (AC) 9-0
141 – Walter Lehner (AC) FFT
149 – Ryan Conway (AC) def Osamah Kmail (UMass) by TF at 6:45 / 18-3
157 – Sam Wilcox (UMass) def Jareb Gleckel (AC) by Fall at 5:30
164 – Gordy Lockbaum (AC) def Ryan O’Conner (UMass) by TF at 4:40 / 19-2
174 – Matt Clement (UMass) def Adam Kaye (AC) by Fall at 2:25
184 – Thomas McClintock (AC) FFT
197 – Connor Sheridan (UMass) def James Williams (AC) by Fall at 6:45
235 – Guy Matisis (AC) FFT
285 – Tim Rose (AC) def Ivan Babian by Fall at 2:25

Final score: Amherst 40 vs. UMass 22

Exhibition Matches:

141 – Walter Lehner (AC) def Spencer Squires (UMass) by Fall at 2:20
174 – Ryan O’Conner (UMass) def Thomas McClintock (AC) by Fall at 3:45
235 – Guy Matisis def (AC) def Connor Sheridan (UMass) by Fall at 2:45
285 – Tim Rose (AC) def Justin Wiley (AC) 2-0

Dear Amherst Wrestling Alum,

Wrestling is back at Amherst after a nearly 20-year hiatus!

The newly founded Amherst Wrestling Club is back on the mats and features a roster of 14 wrestlers with a wide variety of experience, including eight freshmen. The new head coach, Eddy Augustin, is a very talented and experienced coach who brings a great attitude and set of experiences to Amherst College. He joined Amherst last summer as a full time member of the Athletic Department staff, serving as Head Wrestling Coach and an Assistant Football Coach. Eddy is an enthusiastic supporter of the new wrestling club and has the program in full swing, with daily practices on their new purple mats in Alumni gym. In addition, Coach Augustin is fortunate to have two assistant coaches with significant wrestling experience. Please read the overview from the Amherst website to learn more about the newly founded wrestling club as well as the short piece on Coach Augustin and his background. Coach Augustin is very interested in building a connection between the club and the Amherst wrestling alumni. He can be reached at eaugustin@amherst.edu.  

The team has had dual meets with Albany, Northeastern, UMass, University of Connecticut, and WNEC. In addition to these schools, they have faced wrestlers in tournament competition from club and Division III teams such as Yale, UNH, Springfield Tech, RIC, Hudson Valley, and URI. The team recently competed in a very competitive tournament in Rhode Island, the Groundhog Day Invitational at Bryant University, and managed to have three place winners despite an abbreviated roster due to several minor injuries in the upper weights. The Amherst Wrestling team is now back at full strength and travels to New Hampshire for the New England Championships this Sunday at UNH. The first and only home dual meet is Wednesday, February 18th at 7:00 p.m. in Alumni Gymnasium. Amherst's grapplers will be in Albany on February 27th and 28th for the NCWA New England Conference Championships with hopes of qualifying for the Nationals on March 12th.
 
Please spread the word to any other Amherst Wrestling Alumni about the return of wrestling to Amherst - and let any scholar-athlete wrestlers in your area know that they can go to the #1 school in the country and receive the best undergraduate experience in the world. . . and still wrestle!

I have agreed to serve as the alumni liaison to the club and will provide periodic updates on their progress. I hope you all are excited about the Amherst Wrestling Club. Several alums who I have spoken to suggested an alumni reunion at a future match, which we will work on for the 2009-10 season. Please let me or the alumni office know if you would like to be removed from this distribution, or contact me with any questions or suggestions. I can be reached at kconway@cdr-inc.com or at 212-407-5272.
 
Thanks.
Kevin Conway '80

p.s. To access a list of alumni wrestlers and their contact information, visit the Alumni Directory [login required]. Under "Extracurricular Activities," enter "wrestling."