Healthy Broncs Battle for CAA Title
Rider Travels to Binghamton Saturday
BINGHAMTON, NY--The Rider wrestling team, healthy for the first time all season, will travel to Binghamton University for the Colonial Athletic Association Championships, March 3.
"The CAAs are very, very tough this year," said Rider head coach Gary Taylor. "The CAA has three teams ranked in the top 25 in the nation and there is a reason for that, they're good."
The CAA Tournament will send 23 wrestlers to the NCAA Championships in St. Louis March 15-17, four spots at 165 pounds, three each at 197 and 285 pounds, two each at 133, 141, 149, 157, 174 and 184 pounds, and one at 125 pounds.
The Broncs (10-9, 4-2 CAA) are led by junior Jim Resnick (Media, Pa./Penncrest), sophomore Chuck Zeisloft (Woodbury Heights, N.J./Gateway), freshman Jimmy Morris (Northport, NY/St. Anthony's), senior Jimmy Kirchner (Somerville, N.J./Somerville), junior Zac Cibula (Luxemburg, Wis./Luxemburg Casco), freshman Clint Morrison (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cedar Cliff) and sophomore Ramon Santiago (Sayreville, N.J./Sayreville).
Resnick is ranked first in the CAA at 174 pounds and 10th in the nation by W.I.N. Magazine, 12th by Amateur Wrestling News and 13th by InterMat. Resnick (17-3 overall, 1-1 CAA) is a two-time NCAA qualifier who missed much of this season with a knee injury.
Zeisloft is ranked third in the CAA at 125 pounds and is 22-11 overall, 3-3 CAA.
Morris is ranked third in the CAA at 133 pounds and is 12-7 overall, 4-1 CAA. Morris was named the CAA Rookie of the Week three times.
Kirchner is ranked third in the CAA at 141 pounds and is 15-10 overall, 2-1 CAA. Kirchner has placed third in the CAA tournament twice and advanced to Nationals in 2010.
Cibula missed most of this season with injuries after earning the CAA Championships Most Outstanding Wrestler award last year. Cibula is currently ranked third in the CAA at 149 pounds and has a record of 5-3 overall, 1-1 CAA.
Morrison is ranked third in the CAA at 184 pounds and owns a 12-9 record, 4-2 CAA. "Clint continues to improve," Taylor said of the red-shirt freshman, who comes from a long line of wrestling Morrisons. Clint's father Tim '83 was an All-American at Rider and his two older brothers, T.J. '08 and Robbie '11 were NCAA qualifiers.
Santiago is ranked fourth in the CAA at 157 pounds and is 14-12 overall, 3-3 CAA.
Last season Rider finished fifth of seven teams at the CAAs and sent three wrestlers to Nationals.
This season host Binghamton is ranked 19th in the nation by the National Wrestling Coaches Association and sixth among Mid Majors. Hofstra is ranked 23rd in the nation and seventh among Mid Majors and Old Dominion University is ranked 24th in the nation, 11th among Mid Majors.
Hofstra won the CAA Championships last year, the ninth title in the last 10 years for The Pride. Binghamton won the CAA title in 2010.
"Hofstra is a veteran team," Taylor said. "We wrestled better against Binghamton than we did against Hofstra this season. They both will be very tough."
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