The Scarlet Knights opened the dual-meet with victories in four of their first five matches and jumped out to an early 12-4 lead. During that stretch, 141-pound junior Steve Adamcsik (Chester, NJ) extended his individual winning streak to 12 matches by defeating Alex Bimes, 8-1.
Senior Rudy Medini (Colonia, NJ) was impressive in his 184-pound match, breezing past Dave Williams of East Stroudsburg by a 10-4 count. Medini improved his overall record to 16-3, including a team-best 7-0 mark in dual-meet action.
The most pivotal match of the night was won by 157-pound sophomore Jamie Lijo (Hopatcong, NJ), who battled the ESU's Mark Smith, a grappler notorious for his ability to pin his opponents. In his match-up with Smith, Lijo gave his team a critical eight-point lead by avoiding the late pin-fall and earning a hard-fought 12-10 decision.
Head coach John Sacchi emphasized the importance of Lijo's match.
"[Lijo] wrestled a very smart match," Sacchi said. "His opponent was very tough but [Lijo] did a great job of avoiding the pin."
Lijo's win turned out to be the difference, as the Scarlet Knights went on to lose three of their last five matches.
While Sacchi was pleased with his teams' performance and its 6-2 overall record, he still sees room for improvement in a squad that starts five freshmen.
"We wrestled very hard tonight and we are certainly coming along," Sacchi said. "But we still want to be more solid in our technique with the younger kids."
With the victory the Scarlet Knights pushed their unbeaten streak to five matches, dating back to the teams' victory at Maryland on Dec. 10. RU is 6-2 on the season, including a 3-2 mark in the highly competitive EIWA conference. The loss dropped the Warriors to 6-6 on the season and gave them a loss in their first EIWA contest of the season.
The Scarlet Knights will look to continue their winning ways when they head to West Point, NY on Sunday, Jan. 15 to square off against Army and SUNY Binghamton at 2:00 p.m.
Rutgers Wrestling vs. East Stroudsburg University
RU 18-ESU14
125: Ryan Jablonski (RU) dec. Matt Swallow (ESU), 3-0
133: Nate Nauroth (ESU) maj. dec. Kellen Bradley (RU), 8-0
141: Steve Adamcsik (RU) dec. Alex Bimes (ESU), 8-1
149: Mike Ferrara (RU) dec. Chris Sullivan (ESU), 7-4
157: Jamie Lijo (RU) dec. Mark Smith (ESU), 12-10
165: Keith Smith (ESU) dec. Matt Pletcher (RU), 4-0
174: Mike Whalen (RU) dec. Dave Sullivan (ESU), 11-9
184: Rudy Medini (RU) dec. Dave Williams (ESU), 10-4
197: Charles Deighton (ESU) dec. Lamar Brown (RU), 5-3; OT
285: Adam Karasevicz (ESU) maj. dec. Mike D'Amico (RU), 12-0
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