The road that lies ahead of the Blue Jay wrestling team is a tough one. They field a team of mostly younger wrestlers, but they're no less willing to compete and learn. Despite their age, some of the Hopkins wrestlers have turned in impressive performances even though they're only a few weeks into the season. This past weekend, the talent was on full display as the Jays traveled all the way up to Bristol, R.I. to compete against some of the toughest Division III teams in the country at the Roger Williams Invitational.
In a debut season that is already turning some heads, 133-pounder Michael Testa took fourth in a very tough division. After placing second in last week's Messiah College tournament, all eyes were on him. However, he's still new to the game, and his tournament was almost over before he knew it as he dropped his first match by a score of 3-1. But Testa recovered and bruised his way through the rest of the tournament.
"After losing my first match of the day, I had to battle back to reach the consolation finals," Testa said. "I wrestled a lot of close hard fought matches and ultimately that can only help me to improve."
That tough bunch of matches began with a win by fall in only 3:35. His next opponent fared little better, as Testa won easily 13-0. As the wrestler who had defeated him in the first round was eliminated, Testa worked his way through the next few rounds, beating out his opponents by close scores; 7-3, 8-5 and 4-1, all the way into the third place bout. But it was here he fell to a wrestler from RIC by the narrowest of margins; 5-4.
The Jays stalled in the middle weights, but in the 174-pound weight class another freshman, Andrew Brochu, was able to break into the top six. His day started much the same way Testa's did; a tough first round decision to a good opponent, losing 6-2. But also like his teammate, Brochu rebounded with a win in the next round, overcoming a UMA wrestler by a score of 3-2. Winning his next two matches by decision earned a guaranteed top six finish. After losing by fall in the next round, he then competed for a fifth place finish. But unfortunately, he lost the match again by fall. His day was still successful, though, as he finished sixth overall and earned valuable team points.
"It's definitely a big jump from high school to college wrestling," Brochu said. "This weekend I started to put all the things I've learned at Hopkins together, which led to my first college wins. If I can continue to do that I think there will definitely be more wins to come."
The next in the long line of talented Jay freshmen is Hector Cintron. It can't be easy taking over the spot held by last year's conference champion Eric Fishel, but Cintron has performed very well thus far. His day started off with a well-deserved 8-0 victory. From there, he walked over two more opponents, winning 18-6 and then 13-0 and moving into the semifinals. But there, he was stopped by number one seed and eventual champion, Bryan Lenhardt. Cintron was unable to beat him and lost by major decision 18-8. Now in the consolation bracket, he beat one opponent to reach the consolation finals. Unfortunately here he fell 9-5, finishing fourth overall.
Even with the fourth place finish, Cintron remains completely optimistic about the rest of the season. "There are a couple things I would have personally done differently and I think that some of the other guys might feel the same," he said. "But that's how the sport is; even if you win all the time, there's always something you can improve on."
Not to be outdone by the freshman, the highlight of the day for the Jays, as it was last week, came from 197-pound senior Tyler Schmidt. Coming into the tournament seeded third, he was able to overcome his first opponent 4-1. His winning ways continued as he narrowly escaped in his next match with a 2-0 victory. Now in the semifinals, he earned his finals match following an impressive display against his opponent from Messiah, winning in dominant fashion 10-1. But for all he could do, he was unsuccessful in his final match, losing to Joe Silverman of MIT, 3-2.
All in all, Hopkins finished ninth overall. Johnson and Wales were tournament champions with 142.5 points, just two ahead of second place Messiah. Up next will be another long trip to compete in the always exciting Red Dragon Invitational.
