GRANTHAM, PA (December 2, 2022) -- The King's College Monarchs wrestling team began their road battle on Friday afternoon at the Messiah Petrofes Invitational at Hitchcock Arena. Day one of the two day invitational saw Kade Kravits reach tomorrow's semi-finals in the 174 weight class. The Monarchs as a team finished the day in seventh place out of 15 teams with 62 points.
Patrick Horvath wrestled for Monarchs at 125. After receiving a bye in the first round, Horvath lost a close 3-2 decision to Brian McCaw of Muhlenberg College. After he received a bye in the second round of the consolation matches, Horvath won his third and fourth round consolation matches. He won by a major 16-2 decision over Elliot Rivera of Shenandoah University before he pinned Christian Lievano of State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland in 6:54.
Nick Germano was one of two King's College wrestlers at 133. He won his first round match by a 6-1 decision over Antonio Abate of Gettysburg College. Germano would follow that up with a round two pin of Alex Guaman Castro of Bridgewater State University in 2:30, to advance to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals he lost by a 14-3 decision to Jayden Cardenas of SUNY Cortland. He bounced back however to win by 4-2 decision over Cody Merwin of SUNY Cortland in his first consolation match.
Cole Anderson also wrestled at 133 for the Monarchs. He was pinned in his first round match by Wilson Gomes of Bridgewater State, but went on to win his next three matches. After he received a bye in the first round of consolations, Anderson earned a commanding 16-1 technical fall victory over Ivan Benitez of Greensboro College. He got another dominant win via pin in just 54 seconds over Alex Guaman Castro of Bridgewater State. He would finish the day with another pin, this time in 6:19 over Amos Rivera of SUNY Cortland.
Hugh Bittenbender represented the team at 141. He went 1-1 in the preliminary round, losing by pin to Ty Stewart of Springfield College before defeating Trevor McGowan of host school Messiah University, 17-1. He would win his first match of the consolation round by medical forfeit over Vincent Santilli of SUNY Cortland before losing 15-7 to Messiah's Mason Casey.
The 149 weight class featured Cameron Leslie and Shane Kibler. Leslie took his opening round match by the score of 9-6, over Cameron Hatchett of Shenandoah. He lost in round two by the score of 5-3 to Paul Kakos of Alvernia University.
After receiving a bye in the first round, Kibler delivered a massive 22-8 decision win over Clay Gainer of Messiah. In the quarterfinals, he fell to Chance Babb of Alvernia by 6-3 decision. Kibler would take his consolation match by 5-3 decision over Luke Temple of Springfield.
The 157 weight class also featured a pair of Monarchs in Colby Spencer and Bret Murphy.
Spencer won his first round match by 8-3 decision over Joey Visciano of Cortland, and his second round match via pin over Saadiq Pabon-Williams of Thaddeus Stevens College in 1:20. He would lose his next two matches, falling to Jason Rezac of Alvernia in the quarterfinals by 15-3 decision and to Myles Leonard of Springfield in the consolations by pin.
Murphy went 1-2 on the day. He lost his opening match via pin to Garret Cornell of Messiah, but would win his next match by pin over Shawn Howes of Penn State Mont Alto in 1:49. In his final match, he was defeated by Trey Miletics of Muhlenberg by way of pin.
Alex Ballantyne and Jackson Marcantonio competed at 165.
Ballantyne was pinned in his first match by Patrick Coffron of Shenandoah and lost his second match by 16-0 technical fall to Noah Beal Hernandez of Springfield. Marcantonio meanwhile went 2-2 on the day. In his first match, he pinned Ricardo Diego of Southern Virginia University in 1:46. In round two, he fell to Justin Richey of Gettysburg by a major 16-1 decision. He would bounce back in his first consolation match to earn a 16-1 technical fall win over Graham Chandler of Gettysburg, but would fall in his final contest of the day by 8-1 decision to Michael Hopkins of Bridgewater.
Kravits made it the furthest among the Monarchs on the first day at 174. He will see semi-finals action for the third invitational this season. After receiving a first round bye, Kravits started the day with a dominant 17-1 technical fall win over Max Grzymala of Springfield. In the quarterfinals, he defeated Austin Brass of Messiah by 9-2 decision. Kravits is set to face Dylan Weaver of Shenandoah in tomorrow's semis.
The 184 weight class featured three Monarchs in Connor Wrobleski, Richard Fronheiser and Bill Grace. All three made it to the quarterfinals. Wrobleski got there by pinning Justin Rhyne of Gettysburg in 1:28. Fronheiser and Grace made it by decisions of 16-7 and 10-3 over Deon Savage of Muhlenberg and Chris Crasteley of Messiah.
Wrobleski had a hard-fought quarterfinals battle against Isaac Kassis of Alvernia, but fell via decision 5-2. In his consolation match, he pinned Jack Patti of Muhlenberg in 4:08. Fronheiser lost his quarterfinal match to Brian Torres of Cortland by 16-5 decision. He bounced back to win his next match by 5-2 decision over University of Mount Union's Nick Chaddock. Grace got pinned by Ryan Fairchild of Muhlenberg before winning his consolation match by 8-4 decision over Rhyne.
Three Monarchs also wrestled at 285. Johnny Rivera was pinned by Palmer Rodenhaber of Alvernia then by teammate Jacob Feese in 51 seconds. Feese went 2-2 on the day. He lost his first match by 3-1 decision to Nick Rodgers of Springfield but won his next two. After pinning Rivera, he took a major 14-2 decision win over Kaden Bryan of Shenandoah. He lost his final match to Shenandoah's Robert Gray by decision, 5-3. Nick Valenzano rounded out the 285 weight class. He got pinned by Benjamin Katz of Springfield and Simon Taylor of Gettysburg in his two matches.
The tournament will resume for its final day of action tomorrow morning, starting at 9:00 a.m.
--MONARCHS--
