Hopkins, Curley Advance at Messiah Petrofes Invitational

By Jim Fenton

GRANTHAM, Pa. -- Two Bridgewater State University wrestlers advanced to the second day of the 53rd annual Petrofes Invitational, hosted by Messiah University, on Friday.

Senior Michael Hopkins (Swampscott, Mass.) and sophomore Christian Curley (Bridgewater, Mass.) will continue in the consolation round when the tournament concludes on Saturday starting at 9:30 a.m.

Hopkins is 4-1 in the 174-pound division while Curley is 3-1 in the 197-pound division.

The two-day tournament is being held at the Jordan Court in Hitchcock Arena, and BSU had 22 wrestlers in the competition, which includes 15 teams from Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina and Michigan. Springfield College is the only other Massachusetts school in the field.

Hopkins won in the first round by technical fall, 16-1, over Nick Parrella of Lycoming, then lost to Jake Deguire of Springfield by majority decision, 10-2.

He rebounded for three wins in the consolation round, defeating Aiden Weingrad of Muhlenberg by decision, 8-1, stopped Ryan Gallagher of Gettysburg by majority decision, 10-0, and by majority decision, 12-0, over Spencer Vos of Adrian.

Hopkins will take on Michael Gabbard of Averett in the consolation quarterfinals tomorrow morning.

Curley won by fall at 1:49 in his first match against Nick Blitz of Springfield College and then defeated Dakota McDermontt of Saint Vincent by fall at 1:09.

Curley dropped an 11-9 decision in the quarterfinal round to Sawyer Dereszynski of Messiah to drop into the consolation round but stayed in the tourney with a win by fall over Jason Chiodi of Alvernia at 2:15.

Curley till take on James Ellis of Lycoming tomorrow morning in the consolation quarterfinals.

BSU junior Malcolm Chrispin (Hyde Park, Mass.) went 2-0 in the 141-pound division to start his day.

Chrispin, who finished third at the tournament a year ago, won an 11-3 majority decision over Daniel Pierce of host Messiah to begin his day.

He then scored a 4-1 decision over Brendan Callahan of Gettysburg in the second round.

In the quarterfinal round, Chrispin suffered a first-period injury (2:46) against Shaun Quirk of Messiah.

Freshman 141-pounder Owen Menendez (Marlborough, Mass.) won by fall over Angel Avalos of King's College in a preliminary round match, then lost to Nick Bradbury of Thaddeus Stevens by fall at 56 seconds. In the consolation round, he won by decision over Kruz McCusker of Misericordia by decision and lost to Danny Carrozza of Gettysburg by majority decision, 12-0.

Sophomore Joseph Cahill (Fountain Hills, Ariz.), at 133 pounds, won his opening bout over Trey Ruehl of Averett by majority decision, 23-14, before losing to Jaden Colwell of Springfield by fall at 1:43 and to James King of Alvernia by fall in the consolation round.

Junior Sei Dolomengi (Brooklyn Park, Minn.) dropped his first round match at 125 to Esuar Ordonez of Springfield by fall at 7:00, and after a bye in the consolation, won by majority decision over Hunter Sanchez of Springfield, 10-2, before losing to Kyree Flamer of Averett by technical fall.

Sophomore 141-pounder Benjamin Hankinson (Braintree, Mass.) lost by technical fall, 15-0, to Andrew Loniewski of Muhlenberg, then won a consolation round match over Shane Perry of Lycoming by fall at 3:23. He lost in the next consolation round to Mauricio Reyes of Averett by technical fall, 15-0.

Freshman James Calabrese (Foxborough, Mass.) lost his first match competing out of the 149-pound weight class to Levi Snyder of Messiah by fall at 3:59 and won in the consolation round by fall over Kyle Haverstick of Lycoming at 5:59. He was eliminated by Jacob Cunningham of Messiah via a technical fall.

In the 184-pound division, senior Amauris Gomez (Lawrence, Mass.) lost by fall to Nathan Kovalcik of Messiah at 2:59 in the first round and had a bye in the consolation round. He won by decision over Jesus Bautista of Adrian and was stopped by injury default in the next round.

The Bears are in 13th place (31 pts) after day one of the tournament.