The Columbia men’s wrestling team traveled to Binghampton, NY this past weekend and earned second place in the New York State Championships, a tournament hosted by the SUNY-Binghampton Bearcats for 19 New York state colleges. After day one, the Lions held strong with seven wrestlers still in the championship brackets, and only three falling down into the consolations.
Columbia was in first place going into day two, but it proved to be a difficult position to hold for the Lions. Columbia sent 125-pounder freshman Penn Gottfried into the semi-finals, along with 133-pounder junior Kyle Gilchrist, 149-pounder junior Shane Strumwasser, 165-pounder senior Eren Civano, 184-pounder sophomore Nick Mills, and the top-seeded wrestlers, sophomore Stephen West at 174 pounds and junior Kevin Lester at heavyweight.
On day two, Strumwasser, Mills and West dropped their first matches, sending them to the consolation bracket. Strumwasser placed 4th overall, and Mills and West earned 5th in their respective divisions. Meanwhile, Gottfried, Gilchrist and Lester continued on to the finals. However, the only champion of the day was Lester, who defeated Hofstra’s Paul Snyder. Lester had previously defeated Synder at the Las Vegas tournament by 3-0, a victory which gave him the title of New York State Champion.
With so many dropped matches for the day, the Lions were unable to hold their first place team title and claimed second with a score of 132.5, falling behind the Bearcats by 17 points.
The Lions will face the mat again at home on Saturday with three matches against Millersville, Rider, and Franklin and Marshall. The action kicks off at 11 a.m. in the University Gym.
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