Wheeling Jesuit University
Cardinals Wrestling
316 Washington Avenue, Wheeling, West Virginia 26003
Cardinals Defeat Warriors
January 31, 2016
WHEELING, W.Va. – It turned out to be just as sunny inside on the McDonough wrestling mat as outside Sunday afternoon. The Wheeling Jesuit wrestlers posted five extra-point bout wins and defeated East Stroudsburg, 24-15.
WJU's Dominick Nania (149) recorded a tech fall, while Dustin Warner (125), Nolan Whitely (133), Dean Meyer (174) and Terrance Fanning (197) all added major decision victories over the ESU (5-7).
The Cardinals' win snapped a five-match losing streak, all to nationally-ranked opponents, for their second home dual victory in as many tries and improved to 8-5.
"It was good to get a win. I think this year we have won the matches we were supposed to win, but lost the ones, most say, we were supposed to lose. We have to find a way to turn the losses into wins," stressed WJU head coach Sean Doyle. "All of our guys wrestled hard and even the matches we lost were hard-fought ones."
Starting the day, Warner bounced back from a tough Friday match at Pitt-Johnstown. He was on ESU's Collyn Dorney from the start. He raced out to a 10-0 lead off a takedown and two sets of near fall points, before taking away the 18-4 major decision.
"It was good to see Dustin wrestle well for seven minutes in a dual meet," noted Doyle.
A newcomer to the lineup, Dean Meyer had an impressive outing. The sophomore built an early 6-2 advantage on Kevin Knox of ESU and extended it to 8-3 in the second period. He put the finishing touches on a major decision (13-4) with the extra points needed with a final takedown with three seconds left in the match.
"Dean gives us someone real dangerous heading into the postseason at 174," added the WJU coach.
At 133, Whitely helped WJU add to its early lead. The second-year Cardinals grappler led the entire match against ESU's Connor Maliff. He gave up only an escape in the first period where he led 6-1 and doubled his points by the end of the bout to a 12-1 major decision final.
Nania continued his strong late season run. The 149-pound junior opened an 8-0 lead on Eric Januszkiewicz, after a period, added a pair of points on a takedown where it looked like he was about to give up points and finished off his seventh tech fall of the season, 17-2.
Along with Nania, redshirt freshman Fanning has his own run over match wins. The 197-pounder pushed his season mark to 17-4 with a workmanlike 11-1 major decision over Brandon Steele of ESU.
Keegan Driscoll contributed a solid 12-7 decision victory. Driscoll had an 8-3 second period lead on Blake Cohen, before he added a key takedown with 1:02 left in the third period to seal the victory.
In the final match, even though he fell short, WJU's Logan Bowman produced a good outing. Bowman came up a point short, 4-3, against ESU's No. 7 nationally-ranked Tyson Searer.
"For Logan to lose by one point to a kid nationally-ranked is a great job with him," Doyle pointed out.
WJU will have its work cut out for them next Friday, Feb. 5. The Cardinals host the No. 1 ranked Falcons of Notre Dame College in a 7 p.m. match.
