That is exactly what the 197-pounder did, as he allowed Cornell's Jerry Rinaldi, ranked 10th in the NWCA/InterMat/NWMA poll, only three escapes while earning a 5-3 win in the championship.
"Overall, he dominated. He only gave up three escapes, so the match wasn't as close as the score," Catrabone said. "Kyle showed a lot of leadership facing some of the top guys in the country."
The win caps off a historic weekend for the 2004 All-American, as he also set a school-record with his 114th career win in the second round of the tournament against Cal. St. Fullerton's Chris Chambers on Friday night, passing Gary Cooper's mark of 113 career wins set from 1998-2003. The tournament title also stretches Cerminara's season-starting win streak to 19 matches, which is just five shy of John Stutzman's school-record of 24 straight wins, set in 1996-97.
Cerminara, ranked fifth in the NWCA/InterMat/NWMA poll, earned a first period takedown before Rinaldi earned an escape. Rinaldi tied the score in the second period when he earned another escape after Cerminara started the period on top. In the third period, however, Cerminara got a reversal early in the period and accumulated enough riding time to earn his fifth point before Rinaldi got free.
In the semifinals, Cerminara earned three takedowns to score a come-from-behind 8-6 win against North Carolina State's Ryan Goodman. Goodman earned the first takedown, but Cerminara stormed back to win.
Cerminara's road to the title ran through three nationally-ranked wrestlers as he opened the tournament with a 5-3 win against WrestlingReport.com's 29th-ranked Mark Thompson of The Citadel. He followed his record-tying win with a dominating 9-0 performance against Chambers to earn the record, before beating the NWCA/InterMat/NWMA's 13th-ranked Jeff Foust of Missouri , 7-1, in the quarterfinals to conclude his action Friday.
Buffalo finished with 48.5 points en route to a best-ever finish of 16th out of the 52-team field. Buffalo finished in front of Wisconsin, ranked eighth in the USA Today/NWCA/InterMat poll, after the Badgers tallied 43.5 points. Buffalo also finished well in front of its fellow Mid-American Conference schools at the event, as Ohio (37th-14.0) and Eastern Michigan (42nd-12.5) also competed.
"Overall, we were disappointed in some matches," Catrabone said. "We felt we should have placed half our guys, but wrestling against some of the top guys in the nation showed us a lot. We know what we have to focus on. We have to keep our nose down and keep working hard to get better everyday."
The road will not get easier for the Bulls either, as they travel to Erie, PA for the War at the Shore against the USA Today/NWCA/InterMat's 22nd-ranked Edinboro on Friday at 8:30 pm. Edinboro finished fourth at the Las Vegas Invitational with 101 points, just behind third-placed Missouri (102.5).
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