COLLEGEVILLE, PA (November 12, 2022) -- The King's College Monarchs wrestling team hit the road for the first time this season at the Racich Rumble Invitational. Seniors Gus Petruske IV and Kade Kravits each made deep runs to the semi-finals in the tournament. Petruske finished in fourth place overall in the 125 bracket while Kravits finished in fifth overall at 174.
The 125 weight class featured Petruske and first year Patrick Horvath. Petruske earned an opening round pin at 1:55 of his first match, defeating Zachary Hurst of Camden County College. In the round of 16 Petruske had another dominant performance. This time he won via technical fall 16-0 in the second period. With 0:35 seconds left in the period, Petruske had three consecutive near falls to defeat Dhilan Patel of Johns Hopkins University.
In the quarterfinals, he faced off against Sean O'Toole of Delaware Valley University. Leading 8-5 going into the second period, Petruske pulled away with 11 straight points. He came away with a 22-7 technical win at 5:00 to punch his ticket to the semi-finals for the second weekend in a row.
Petruske had a hard-fought effort in the semis, but fell via decision to Jared Kuhns of York College of Pennsylvania 10-4. He would however take his next match by an 8-1 decision over Justin Amendola of State University of New York-Cortland. This was followed by a loss via pin to Terry Adams of host school Ursinus College in his final matchup of the day. His performance was good for a fourth place finish, the best finish for the Monarchs in the tournament.
Horvath lost in the round of 32 via a 10-2 decision to Tanner Thatcher of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He won his his next match via decision 14-7 over Patel, before being pinned by Franco Mazza of Urisnus.
The other big day for King's came at 174, which featured three Monarchs. Kravits took care of business in the round of 64. He came away with a 3-0 decision win over SUNY-Cortland's Patrick Ross.
He won his second match by pinning Kadin Khalloufi of Johns Hopkins in 2:22. Kravits won another close decision
2-0 in the round of 16 over Jonny Gherman of Ursinus. In the quarterfinals Kravits took down James Circle of Alvernia by a 4-1 decision. Every point in this match was scored in the final period.
Kravits went the distance against Jason Geyer of New York University but lost 5-0 in the semis. He would end his day getting pinned by Adam Barker of SUNY-Cortland but came in fifth.
The other two Monarchs to compete at 174 were sophomore Alex Martinez and senior Joe Davis. Martinez lost via pin to Josiah Prosser of Saint John Fisher University and Jared Townsend of York. Davis lost by technical fall to Jordan Downey of Ursinus and via pin to Joseph Teguia of Camden County.
The 133 weight class had sophomore Nick Germano and first year Cole Anderson wrestle for the Monarchs. Each got past the round of 32. Germano did so via a 16-0 technical at 3:34 over Joel Drefreytas of York. Anderson won by medical decision 16-6, beating Samuel Kimmel of Wilkes University.
Germano had a close battle in the round of 16, but fell by decision 2-1 to Tyler Crew of New York University. Germano would take his next two matches. First he had a commanding 14-0 medical decision win over Ian Shaubach of York. He emerged victorious again with an 8-0 medical decision win over Bryce Arnold of Messiah. He finished the day with a 5-3 decision loss to Derek Bernardino of Saint John Fisher. Anderson meanwhile lost to second seeded Jayden Cardenas of SUNY-Cortland 24-8, via technical fall, and Scott Reagan of Elizabethtown College by a narrow 7-6 decision.
First year Hugh Bittenbender represented the Monarchs at 141. After losing a heartbreaking 5-4 decision to Shane Walczyk of SUNY-Cortland, he came out on top 14-4 by medical decision over Devin Horton of Delaware Valley. His day ended in a 9-4 decision loss against Torin Bishop of Saint John Fisher.
Sophomore Cameron Leslie wrestled at 149 where he fell 21-3 to Joshua Maslyn of Saint John Fisher. Leslie rebounded to win his next match by a 7-4 decision over Andre Henene of Delaware Valley. He would then get pinned by Josh Rosada of Messiah.
Senior Colby Spencer and sophomore Bret Murphy were the 157 Monarch wrestlers. Spencer took his opening match in the round of 32 on a 6-4 decision over Caden Crest of Worcester Polytechnic. He fell in a round of 16 thriller 5-4 to Alan DeVries of York. Spencer would come back to win his next three matches. The first, he won 5-3 over Fritz Maurath of Johns Hopkins. This was followed by a 7-5 victory over Trevor Sheehan of Saint John Fisher and a 3-2 decision over Robert Lawlor of Alvernia. His day ended on an 11-1 medical decision loss to Kyle Klein of SUNY-Cortland.
Murphy fell to Klein via 16-0 technical decision in his round of 32 match. He also fell to Maurath via decision 10-8.
First year Alex Ballantyne wrestled at 165. He was pinned in his first match by Joseph McCullough of Delaware Valley and in his second match by Luke Hirtzel of Johns Hopkins.
The 184 weight class featured three different Monarchs. First year Connor Wrobleski and senior Will Grace each made the round of 16 via byes. Sophomore Richard Fronheiser made it by a 3-2 decision win over Chris Cratsley of Messiah University. Fronheiser trailed Devan O'Dell of York 4-1 going into the second period. With 1:25 to go Fronheiser came back and pinned O'Dell to punch a ticket to the quarterfinals. He lost via 8-2 decision to third seeded Isaac Kassis of Alvernia.
Wrobleski and Grace would fall in the round of 16. Wrobleski lost to top-seeded Demitereus Henry of SUNY-Cortland via pin. Grace wrestled a close match against Nicolas Lesiur of Worchester Polytechnic, one he lost 7-5. The next match for each of them resulted in wins however. Grace defeated Christian Andres of Worcester Polytechnic by decision 21-14. Wrobleski had a quick pin in 40 seconds over Owen Donahue of Camden County. Grace would also defeat Elliott Lee of Johns Hopkins by a 4-3 decision. He lost a close match by a 3-2 decision to Nicky Bell of NYU.
Teammates Wrobleski and Fronheiser faced off against one another. Fronheiser took the match 6:35 in by the score of 7-5 via medical forfeit. In Fronheiser's final match of the day, he fell to Ryder Slayton of Messiah by decision, 4-1.
First year Nick Valenzano went 1-2 on the day at 285. After falling to Logan Flynn of Delaware Valley 15-4 by medical decision, he pinned Jimmy Yeingst of Elizabethtown 6:28 into the match. Samual Rodriguez of York would pin him in his final match of the day.
The Monarchs will hit the road again next weekend. They will travel to La Plume, PA for the Keystone Pool Tournament on Saturday.
--MONARCHS--
