Army West Point Athletics
Army West Point
New York State Championships
Army Finishes Third at State Championships
November 23, 2014 | Wrestling
Final Results
ITHACA, N.Y. – Senior Chandler Smith and sophomore Russell Parsons each came in first place in their respective weight classes as the Army wrestling team finished in third place at the 46th annual New York State Championships on Sunday.
The Black Knights were near the top of the leaderboard all day and finished with 128.5 points, while No. 3 Cornell earned its third straight state title, edging out Hofstra by a half a point. It was the best finish for Army at the state tournament since winning the whole thing during the 2011-12 season.
“I thought we had some guys who wrestled the best they have this year, and their best is yet to come,” said head coach Kevin Ward. “That’s a good thing and a testament to the work they are putting in. I also thought we had some guys who didn’t compete up to the level they are capable of. We need to continue to raise the level of what we expect out of ourselves. Ultimately, this tournament was a good experience and we can learn a lot from it.”
Smith cruised through the bracket at 165, pinning his first two opponents followed by a technical fall. He used an 8-3 decision to get past Binghamton’s Zack Zupan and capping off his title run with an 11-4 major decision over Hofstra’s Nick Terdick. Army’s co-captain remains perfect this season with an 11-0 mark.
Parsons won his first career collegiate title at the 157-pound weight class. After a first-round bye, the former Blair Academy grappler tallied wins over Cornell’s Taylor Simaz and Binghamton’s Voincent Deprez. He then got past nationally ranked Markus Scheidel of Columbia due to injury to move on the finals. In the championship, Parsons beat Buffalo’s Wally Maziarz, 6-2.
“Russell Parsons looked really sharp today and Chandler Smith has just been looking great,” added Ward. “Smith was firing on all cylinders today, and the scary thing is, he can still get much better. I like what I’m seeing out of him.”
Junior Brian Harvey ran through the 174-pound weight class with ease until he reached the finals. Harvey picked up a pair of pins after a bye in the first round and notched a 12-1 major decision over Cornell’s Jacob Taylor to reach the championship. He battled another member of the Big Red in the finals, dropping a tough 3-2 decision to George Pickett to finish in second.
Fellow junior Austin Wilding also came away with a second-place finish for Army at 184 pounds. Wilding grabbed his first technical fall of the season en route to a finals run. He fell to the nation’s top wrestler in the 184-pound weight class, Cornell’s Gabe Dean, in a 23-8 technical fall.
Freshman Andrew Mendel and sophomore Mark Marchetti had strong showings in the 149-pound bracket. Mendel tallied a 4-2 decision over Eamonn Gaffney of Ithaca College in the third-place match, while Marchetti used a pair of pins to earn a fifth-place finish. Mendel is now 9-2 on the season.
Sophomore Logan Everett recorded his first pin of the season in the 141-pound field. However, his run was cut short by injury and he placed sixth.
Picking up seventh-place finishes for the Black Knights were senior Stephen Snyder (197) and sophomore Samson Imonode, who earned his first pin of the season as well at 184 pounds. Freshman Sean Badua came in eighth place for Army in the 125-pound field.
The Black Knights have just less than two weeks before their next competition, which is the Cliff Keen Invitational, held in Las Vegas, Nev., on Dec. 5-6.
Players Mentioned
