Rider Wrestlers Ranked

Broncs Prepare for Midlands

LAWRENCEVILLE-The Rider wrestling team will travel to Evanston, Illinois to take part in the 48^th Midlands Championships December 29-30 with three wrestlers who are currently nationally ranked.

"We have always treated Midland as a pre-Nationals tournament," said Rider head coach Gary Taylor. "This will help us understand where we are and what we need to do to ready ourselves for Nationals."

The most prestigious amateur wrestling event in the nation, the Midlands, hosted by Northwestern University, features the best collegiate and post-graduate wrestlers along with Olympic hopefuls.

"The Midlands is extremely important and we consider this tournament a preseason NCAA tournament," said associate head coach John Hangey.  "We will see the likes of Iowa, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and Iowa St. just to name a few.  If you are a wrestler and have any aspirations of becoming an All American at the end of the year you will need to beat the kids from those schools and it is an opportunity for our kids to do that at the Midlands."

Three Broncs, sophomore Jim Resnick (Media, Pa./Penncrest), senior Rob Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) and sophomore Zac Cibula (Luxemburg, Wis./Luxemburg Casco), head to Midlands with a national ranking.

Resnick (6-1) is ranked 16^th at 165 pounds by InterMat, 18^th by Amateur Wrestling News and 20^th by WrestlingReport.com.

Morrison (12-2) is ranked 19^th by both InterMat and Wrestling Insider Newsmagazine at 174 pounds, 20^th by AWN and 21^st by WrestlingReport.com.

"Having Renick and Morrison ranked among the top 20 at their weights nationally is a credit to the seasons that they are having so far," Hangey said. "They have wrestled well against the best kids in the country and have shown the consistency that it takes to be considered a top 20 wrestler."

Cibula (14-3) is ranked 31^st at 141 pounds by the WrestlingReport.com.

As a team Rider is ranked 55^th by WIN.

"This will be the best platform for our better wrestlers to get seeded in the NCAA tournament so they are working hard toward doing well at Midlands," Taylor added.

-ru-