Four Pioneers Place at Niagara Open

Four members of the Alfred State College wrestling team placed at this weekend's Niagara CCC Open.  Mike Gustafson (Warren, PA) earned 3rd place at 133, Derek Noldy (Rushboro, PA) was 4th at 174, and Daniel Steiger (Miller Place) and Peter Cole (Baldwinsville) both finished 6th at 184 and 125 respectfully.

Gustafson opened the competition with a 11-0 victory over Mike Capoboanco (Mercyhurst NE) but fell 4-0 to Dan Audy (Niagara CCC Unattached) in the quarterfinals.  In the consolotion bracket, Gustafson defeated Cody Hilsinger (Niagara CCC), Derek Soenson (Mercyhurst NE), and Aaron Sessa (Muskegon CC) to reach the advance to the 3rd place match.  In the 3rd place match, he downed Cody Carpenter (Muskegon CC) 5-1.  With the solid performance, Gustafson improves to 8-3 on the season.

Noldy downed Robert Hall (Grand Valley) 5-4 in his first match at 174.  He fell in the semifinals but bouced back and pinned Matthew Fetterley (Muskegon CC) to advance to the 3rd place match.  In the 3rd place match, Noldy lost a tough 5-4 decision in rematch of their opening bout.

Steiger was 2-3 on the day with a 14-12 victory over Richard Dawson (Niagara CCC) and a pin of Vahan Surabian (Grand Valley) while Cole earned a 12-8 victory over Anthony Mirra in his opening match before falling in his next two matches.

On Friday evening, the Blue and Gold wrestled Muskegon (MI) CC in a dual match and fell 53-3.  Gustafson was the lone Pioneer with a victory.  He downed Cody Carpenter 7-0 at 133 lbs.

The Pioneers are home all week as they close out the 2008 portion of their season.  ASC hosts Niagara CCC on Wednesday at 7 p.m. and host the ASC Open on Saturday beginning at 10 a.m.