Pioneers Compete EIWA Championships

Saturday, March 5

Ithaca, NY

Sacred Heart

EIWA Championship

Photo by: Justin Hoch | jhoch.com

3/5/2022 10:37:00 PM | Men's Wrestling

Accousti, Palumbo, Petrillo and Hetherman win matches

ITHACA, NY – The Sacred Heart University men's wrestling team was in action at the EIWA Championships. Four Pioneers posted victories on Saturday at the meet, hosted by Cornell University.

The Pioneers are in 16^th place with five points. Cornell leads at 94.5 points with Penn next at 86.5 points.

A second trip to nationals wasn't in the cards for Joe Accousti. He lost his opener at 184 pounds, 10-2, to Princeton's Travis Stefanik. Accousti rebounded to beat LIU's James Langan, 4-2, but lost 3-1 to Bryan McLaughlin of Drexel.

Also being denied another trip to the NCAAs was Nick Palumbo at 157 pounds. After a 3-1 opening round loss to Bucknell's Nick Delp, he bounced back to post a 16-3 major decision against James Johnston of LIU. Palumbo's run was stopped, 4-0, by Markus Hartman of Army.

Anthony Petrillo dropped his first match at 133 pounds, 12-1, to Dom LaJoie of Cornell. He bounced back to post a 4-3 decision over Franklin & Marshall's Pat Phillips. Unfortunately, he couldn't get past Nick Kayla of Princeton, 7-3.

Opening with a victory was Robert Hetherman at 197 pounds as he notched a 17-2 tech fall over American's Merv Mancia. Unfortunately, Binghamton's Lou DePrez pinned him then he fell to JT Davis of Lehigh.

Jacob Venezia couldn't get by Columbia's Joe Manchio, 10-2, in the opening round of 125 pounds followed by a 14-2 defeat at the hands Reese Fry of Brown. Jordan Carlucci was pinned by American's Ethan Szerencsits at 141 pounds then lost a 15-0 tech fall to Drexel's Jared Donahue.

At 149 pounds, Raf Lievano was beaten 6-1 by Princeton's Marshall Keller. He medically forfeited in the consolation bracket. Ryan Bolletino was pinned by Columbia's Josh Ogunsanya in his first match at 165 pounds. Blaine Bergey of Princeton handed him a 15-2 major decision.

Alex Marciniak got pinned by Brown's Drew Clearie at 174 pounds then fell to Ross McFarland of Hofstra. In his first championship, Nick Copley fell to Cornell's Lewis Fernandes, the number two seed at 285 pounds, then was pinned by Eli Anthony from Drexel.

Head coach John Clark will have to replace half of his line-up from this year's championship, but he has a large roster to draw from 2022-23.