Oberlander Leads Wrestling at Doug Parker Invitational

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Sophomore Henry Oberlander (Mansfield, Mass.) placed third competing out of the 184-pound weight class to lead the Bridgewater State University wrestling team at the Doug Park Invitational hosted by Springfield College on Saturday.

The Bears finished 11th out of 18 in the team standings with 43.5 points. Wesleyan University captured the team title with 125 points followed by the University of Southern Maine in second place (116 pts.) and host Springfield in third (106 pts.).

Oberlander won his first three bouts to advance to the tournament semifinals. He pinned (2:53) Francisco Jiminian of Springfield Tech. in the opening round and followed that up with a 12-3 major decision over Frank Soucy of MIT. Oberlander then downed Wesleyan's Simon Chee, 5-3, to reach the semifinals.

After getting pinned (0:37) by Wesleyan's Dominic Pirraglia in the semifinals, Oberlander bounced back with a 3-2 decision over Jeremy Berson of Coast Guard Academy in the third place match.

Oberlander, who was ranked fifth in the most recent New England Wrestling Association individual rankings, is now 9-3 on the season.

Senior captain Eric Kerr (Lynnfield, Mass.) added a fifth place showing competing out of the 157-pound weight class. Kerr opened the day with a 16-0 technical fall victory over Plymouth State's Colby Farrell and then pinned (4:03) Chris Gresis of Western New England University.

Following a 9-4 setback to East Stroudsburg's Marquan Payne in the quarterfinals, Kerr rebounded with a 10-2 major decision against Coast Guard's Adam Wilhelm and a 4-0 decision over Lukas Kaminski of Trinity College in the consolation semifinals. He then won by medical forfeit in the fifth place match.

Kerr is now 8-3 on the season.

Junior captain Andrew Valdina (Dracut, Mass.) went 2-2 out of the 133-pound weight class to place eighth. Valdina recorded a 21-6 technical fall victory over Dietrich Hartman of Williams College and earned a 16-5 major decision win against RIC's Franky Roman. He dropped a 12-7 decision to Alex D'Angelo of SUNY Cortland in the consolation semifinals.

The Bears are off until Friday, December 1st when they compete at the two-day Messiah Petrofes Invitational.