Cortland at RIT Wrestling Invitational
Saturday, December 6, 2003; Rochester, N.Y.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - Cortland had six wrestlers place in the top six of their weight classes, including two second-place finishes, to finish third out of 17 teams at the RIT Wrestling Invitational. Ithaca won the tournament with 140 points. John Carroll of Ohio was second with 134, followed by Cortland at 106 and Oswego at 99.

Sophomore Jason Peck (Montgomery/Valley Central) finished second at 125 pounds with a 3-1 record. Ranked fifth nationally in Division III, Peck won his first three matches before losing 6-4 to fourth-ranked Jared Selover of Baldwin-Wallace in the finals. Peck has a 15-3 record this season.

Junior Brent Rider (Tioga Center/Tioga) entered the tournament as the top seed at 157 pounds. Ranked third nationally, he won three consecutive matches to reach the finals before being pinned in overtime by RIT's Chad Sutliff. Junior Matt Slate (Gouverneur) finished third at 165 pounds and sophomore Jason Chase (Rush/Rush-Henrietta) finished third at 141 pounds.

Slate, the sixth seed, posted a 6-1 record at the tournament and is 16-6 this winter. He won his first two matches, one by pin, before losing in the third round to the third-seeded Joe Heiland of Baldwin-Wallace. In the consolation bracket, Slate pinned two straight opponents, won 2-0 versus fourth-seeded Tim Ruberg of Johnson and Wales, then avenged his loss to Heiland with a 3-2 victory in the third-place match.

Chase opened with three straight wins, two by pin, to reach the semifinals. The second seed then lost to third-seeded Gabe Fierro-Fine of Wesleyan, 5-4, to drop into the consolation bracket. Chase won his final two matches, including a 3-2 win over Scott Aronowitz of Ithaca in the third-place bout, to finish 5-1. He is 12-4 on the season.

Also finishing third for Cortland was junior Ben Locke (Bainbridge/Bainbridge-Guilford) at 184 pounds. Locke, ranked eighth in Division III, finished with a 6-1 record and is 15-7 this season. Locke was the third seed and won two matches before losing 4-3 to sixth-seeded Jon Neyerlin of Wilkes. Locke then won his next four matches, including a 5-2 win over Neverlin in the third-place match.

Sophomore Jaret Misener (Schoharie) was Cortland's other placewinner with a sixth-place showing at 149 pounds. He entered the tournament unseeded and won his first two matches before losing 6-4 to the second seed. He won two more matches in the consolation bracket before losing his final two matches, including a setback in the fifth-place match.