Blair Wrestlers Put on Fine Show at Northeast Regional Championships, FILA Cadet Freestyle Nationals and FILA University Nationals

MOCCO, ESPOSITO, BACKES PUT ON OFFICIAL OLYMPIC WATCH

The Blair Academy wrestling team is a perennial powerhouse and that’s why several Blair athletes competed in the Junior Division at the Northeast Regional Championships in Brockport, New York on April 4-6. This is spring-time to most folks, most wrestlers… but not for Blair wrestlers who are gearing up for a stellar 2008-2009 season.

They placed-in Brockport-as follows:

98 lbs. Kyle Taylor placed fourth overall
119 lbs. Sean Boyle placed third losing only to #1 ranked Logan Stieber of Ohio
125 lbs. Tony Buxton won his weight division earning a gold medal
130 lbs. Joe Stanzione lost to N.Y. state champion Ian Paddock knocking Joe out of the placing rounds (you can bet Joe will be back with a vengeance in Fargo for the Jr. Nationals)
135 lbs. Garrett Frey placed second losing to nationally-ranked Dylan Alton of Pennsylvania
152 lbs. Jesse Shanaman finished as a runner-up losing to Brandon Rolnick of New Jersey

BLAIR IN OHIO:
The momentum continued for the Blair grapplers on the campus of the University of Akron at the FILA Cadet Freestyle Nationals in Ohio on April 13 as Mark Grey took home the gold medal and Austin Ormsbee grabbed a bronze medal. Their placing bouts are as follows:

Mark Grey (New Jersey) dec. Joe Orecchio (New Jersey), 7-0, 2-0 to win the 92.5 pound title; Austin Ormsbee (New Jersey) defeated Joshua Dziewa (Pennsylvania), 1-0, 4-3 to place third at 138.7 lbs.

In the same gymnasium at Akron University several Blair alums were battling in the FILA University Nationals for their respective universities.

Ross Gitomer had a fine tournament placing sixth for the Virginia Cavaliers at 121 lbs., Joel Ahern was runner-up at 154.25 lbs. for the Naval Academy, Mike Galante of Lehigh defended his 174 pound crown and Jared Platt placed fourth at 211.5 lbs. Brendan Byrne of Maryland and Max Shanaman also wrestled well and will look to come back next year and compete for medals.

BLAIR OLYMPIC WATCH:
The ultimate prize for any student-athlete is to represent his or her country at an Olympic Games…and three Blair wrestlers are very close to reaching their life-long goal of being a member of a USA Olympic Team. Steve Mocco (2001) is currently ranked #2 at 264.5 lbs. and is working extremely hard to earn a trip to Beijing. Likewise, Zack Esposito (2002) who is ranked #4 at 145.5 lbs. and Kurt Backes (2002)-ranked #4 at 211.5 lbs. are all going through three-a-day workouts in order to make a move at the Final Olympic Trials in Las Vegas on June 13-15. Let’s keep an eye out for these three Blair student-athletes.

***Please note that in the next article we will provide results of the FILA Junior National Championships and the New Jersey Ranking Tournament.

Please direct all questions and comments to buxtoj@blair.edu.