ITHACA, N.Y. – The Castleton University wrestling team concluded its season-opening tournament with a comfortable second-place results, finishing more than 30 team points ahead of the third-place finisher at the Ithaca Invitational on Saturday.
 
The Spartans collected 145 points as a team, second only to Johnson & Wales. Third-place Delaware Valley had 110.5 points and Ithaca was fourth at 107. No other team reached the 100-point threshold. The Spartans' success came on the backs of 11 place finishers and two individual champions. James Rodriguez won the 141-pound division and Michael Angers topped the 165-pound bracket while nine others place top-six in their respective class.
 
Rodriguez, who ranks No. 4 nationally at 141 pounds, opened his day with a 6-3 decision win to advance to the semifinals before claiming a 4-2 decision to move to the 141-pound title bout. There he won a 3-2 decision over Greensboro's Josh Wilson, the No. 5-ranked 141-pounder in the country, to take the top spot in the event.
 
Angers, the No. 14 165-pounder nationwide, advanced to the semifinals after a medical forfeit by his opponent in the quarterfinal round, and won a 4-1 decision over Ithaca's Jackson Gray. In the title bout against 15th-ranked Scott DeFex, Angers grinded out a 3-2 win with a late-third-period takedown to earn the first-place spot.
 
Cooper Fleming, who entered the season ranked No. 7 at 174 pounds, posted a second-place finish in the event. His only loss came to the No. 5 wrestler in his weight class—SUNY Oswego's Charlie Grygas. Fleming opened the day with a 14-3 major decision before advancing to the title bout with a pin in just 29 seconds. Grygas got out to a two-point lead after the first period and added one more point to his gap in each of the final two stanzas to top Fleming, 9-5.
 
Sampson Wilkins logged a third-place finish, winning 5-2 in his first match of the day against teammate Josh Negron before falling to JWU's Ryan DeVivo in the first sudden-victory period, 4-3. In the consolation bracket, Wilkins topped Griffin Rathburn who had won three straight bouts to stay alive before being eliminated by Wilkins. The 4-2 decision earned Wilkins a spot in the third-place match, which he won 3-1 in the first sudden-victory period with a takedown.
 
Three wrestlers logged fourth-place finishes, as Michael Gonyea, Haven Tatarek and Gavin Bradley all made it to the third-place bout in their respective classes. Gonyea advanced to the 133-pound semifinals with a 48-second pin to open the day, but got bounced to the consolation bracked after coming up on the wrong side of a 6-0 decision in the semifinals. He won a 4-3 decision to get to the third-place match before falling by the same score to Ithaca's Isaiah Torres. Tatarek began the day with a 3-1 decision win, but lost 5-0 in the semifinals to Eze Chukwuezi—the sixth-ranked 197-pounder in the nation. He earned his way into the third-place bout with a 3-2 decision before falling 3-1 in sudden victory to close the day. Bradley, making his collegiate debut at 125, got bounced to the consolation bracket on Friday morning and won five consecutive matches to stave off elimination and earn a spot in the third-place match. He ran into New England College's Chris DeRosa—the 14th-ranked 125-pounder in the country—in the final matchup, falling 4-1 to take fourth place.
 
Shea Garand and Drew Marchese earned fifth-place finishes at 285 pounds and 133 pounds, respectively. Garand won his way into the semifinals with a 4-3 decision to start the day, but dropped a 5-2 battle to move to the consolation bracket. He fell 3-1 in his first consolation bout before winning via fall in the fifth-place match in 1:01. Marchese lost his very first match on Friday and was forced to win or be eliminated from that point. He rattled off five consecutive victories before Gonyea got the best of him with a 4-3 decision, sending Marchese to the fifth-place bout, which he won 5-2.
 
Elijah Cyr and Desmond McLaughlin rounded out Castleton's place finishers, each earning a sixth-place finish in their weight class. Cyr dropped his quarterfinal bout to start the day on Saturday, but proceeded to win two consolation matches before being sent to the fifth-place match with a tiebreak loss. He suffered another tiebreak loss in the fifth-place match, 5-4, to take sixth at 149. McLaughlin fell to the nationally-ranked Grygas—who also bested Fleming later in the day—in the semifinals, moving to the consolation bracket. He then medically forfeited the remaining two matches on the day to take sixth-place.
 
Castleton is back in action next Saturday at the Roger Williams Invitational at 9:30 a.m.