ALBANY, N.Y. – The 22nd-ranked Castleton University wrestling team dropped a 16-15 battle that went down to the wire to No. 9 College of New Jersey on Friday night at the Journeyman Wrestling Armbar at the Armory in Albany, N.Y.
 
The event featured six Division I programs, primarily from the Big 10, in addition to Castleton and TCNJ. NC State, Central Michigan, Iowa, Buffalo, Illinois and Sacred Heart made up the Division I cohort at the event.
 
TCNJ opened the scoring with a 2-0 decision at 125 with the No. 9 wrestler at the weight class taking a narrow result over Castleton's Kaya Bogle. After the first two periods went scoreless, TCNJ's Ryan Rosenthal began the third period on top and earned a two-point near-fall to make the difference in the bout. Castleton got the points back in the 133-pound bout when Michael Gonyea won a high-scoring decision, 11-8, over Larry Melchionda. Gonyea racked up eight points in the first period with a four-point nearfall and a pair of takedowns, but Melchionda made it a battle in the third period with a takedown and four-point nearfall of his own but Gonyea tacked on the bonus point for riding time to take the win comfortably and knot the score at 3-3.
 
TCNJ took the next two bouts at 141 and 149, with Dom Difrancesantonio—ranked seventh at 141—topping James Rodriguez—ranked fourth at 141—with an 8-2 decision. Nicholas Roeger then fell to Mike Conklin—the No. 3 149-pounder in the nation—with a 10-4 decision. Through four bouts, TCNJ led 9-3.
 
Castleton battled back in the middle weights, with Jashon Holmes claiming an upset win with a 4-2 decision over the No. 8 149 pounder in Matt Sacco. Holmes scored a pair of takedowns while Sacco's only points came on a pair of escapes. Michael Angers followed with 3-1 win in the first sudden-victory period, netting a takedown with just 33 seconds left to score the victory and knot the match score at 9-9.
 
Cooper Fleming dropped a sudden-victory-period decision by the same score as Angers' bout, with Reid Colella of TCNJ notching a takedown early in the period for the 3-1 victory. No. 10 Quinn Haddad then earned a major-decision win over Sampson Wilkins at 184 pounds, marking the only match of the night that gave one of the teams more than three points on the scoreboard. Haddad was victorious 10-0 to put TCNJ ahead 16-9 with two bouts remaining on the card.
 
Castleton cut into the lead with a 4-3 win by Haven Tatarek at 197 pounds. Tatarek collected two takedowns, and Joe Daddario of TCNJ tallied two escapes and earned the riding time point after racking up a chunk of time in the second period.
 
The match came down to the heavyweight bout, with Castleton needing at least five points to win and four to send the match to tiebreaking criteria. TCNJ's Peter Wersinger took a 1-0 lead after a second-period escape from the bottom starting position, but Shea Garand leveled the score at 1-1 in the third period by doing the same. That was the only scoring in regulation, with the match going into the sudden-victory period. Garand netted a takedown for the win and three points on the scoreboard, but it was not enough to draw Castleton level, ending the dual with TCNJ on top by just one point.
 
Castleton returns to action Saturday at home when it hosts WPI, Norwich and TCNJ at Glenbrook Gym. Matches start at 12 p.m. before Castleton settles in for a dual with WPI at 3 p.m.