No. 1 Zach Rey of Lehigh defeats No. 2 Dom Bradley of Missouri in their battle at the Journeymen/ASICA Northeast Duals. Brooke Zumas photo

In a strong field of 15 Div. I wrestling programs, only the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers survived the Journeymen/ASICS Northeast Duals on Saturday undefeated.

Rutgers entered the tournament with a No. 24 national ranking as a team. They had a huge win over No. 16 Missouri, 19-16, and also earned wins over Stanford, 18-13 and Columbia, 29-9.

The win over Missouri was decided in the final bout at heavyweight, when No. 5 D.J. Russo scored a last-second takedown to defeat No. 2 Dom Bradley, 4-3. The teams split their matches 5-5 in the dual. A big win came at 165 pounds, when Scott Winston pinned Zach Toal for key bonus points.

“It was a real good day for the Scarlett Knights,” said Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale. “We started a little flat, but we were able to recover and pick up three big wins.”

The four other ranked teams in the event ended the day with one loss.

No. 11 Lehigh went 2-1, beating No. 23 Virginia 30-12 and George Mason 40-3, but losing to No. 16 Missouri, 21-10.

No. 14 Pittsburgh finished 2-1, with wins over No. 23 Virginia, 21-15 and over Penn, 16-15, but a loss to American, 21-19.

No. 16 Missouri finished 3-1, losing only to No. 24 Rutgers, with wins over No. 11 Lehigh, American and Maryland.

No. 23 Virginia finished 1-2, with losses to ranked Lehigh and Pittsburgh, and a victory over Columbia, 30-3.

Of the unranked teams, American’s 3-1 record was most impressive, including the big win over No. 14 Pittsburgh, plus wins over Bloomsburg and Stanford, with the only loss to No. 16 Missouri.

Both of the wrestlers ranked No. 1 in their weight class in the most recent InterMat rankings finished unbeaten, Steve Fittery of American at 157 pounds and Zach Rey of Lehigh at 

But it wasn’t just ranked teams that took some hits during the tournament. Many ranked individual suffered some serious setbacks.

No. 2 ranked heavyweight Dom Bradley of Missouri dropped his first three bouts, losing to No. 3 Ryan Flores of American, No. 5 D.J. Russo of Rutgers then No. 1 Zach Rey of Lehigh. However, Bradley won his fourth bout over Spencer Myers of Maryland, which was the deciding bout in the Tigers’ close 18-12 victory in that dual meet.

Among the upsets of a ranked wrestler by an unranked wrestler came at 149 pounds, when Steve Santos of Columbia pinned Mario Mason of Rutgers in 6:55. 

A total of 24 duals were held, spread across six mats. Teams had different number of dual meets, ranging from two to four. There were numerous matches between ranked athletes during each of the four rounds of competition.

A number of individual matches from the competition will be posted on USA Wrestling’s YouTube Channel in the coming days.

You can also find in-depth coverage of some of the dual meets and individual battles by visiting FloWrestling.

JOURNEYMEN/ASICS NORTHEAST DUALS
At Troy, N.Y., Nov. 27

Mat 1
Missouri 22, American 15
Rutgers 19. Missouri 16
Pittsburgh 21, Virginia 15
Missouri 18, Maryland 12

Mat 2
Rutgers 18, Stanford 13
Maryland 25, Pennsylvania 10
Maryland 19, Northern Iowa 16
Rutgers 29, Columbia 9

Mat 3
Pittsburgh 16, Pennsylvania 15
Lehigh 30, Virginia 13
Missouri 21, Lehigh 10
Lehigh 40, George Mason 3

Mat 4
Virginia 30, Columbia 3
American 31, Stanford 10
American 27, Bloomsburg 10
American 21, Pittsburgh 19

Mat 5
Bloomsburg 34, George Mason 12
Columbia 40, George Mason 6
Pennsylvania 48, Sacred Heart 0
Pennsylvania 31, Stanford 7

Mat 6
Binghamton 35, Sacred Heart 9
Northern Iowa 18, Binghamton 15
Binghamton 22, Stanford 13
Bloomsburg 18, Northern Iowa 14

Overall records for event
Rutgers, 3-0
American, 3-1
Missouri, 3-1
Lehigh, 2-1
Bloomsburg, 2-1
Maryland, 2-1
Binghamton, 2-1
Pittsburgh, 2-1
Pennsylvania, 2-2
Virginia, 1-2
Columbia, 1-2
Northern Iowa, 1-2
Sacred Heart, 0-2
George Mason, 0-3
Stanford, 0-4