May 4, 2006
ANNAPOLIS, Md. --- Six Navy wrestlers recently competed at the University National Freestyle tournament, held in Chicago last weekend with a pair of Mids bringing home honors. Sophomore heavyweight Ed Prendergast (St. Louis, Mo.) and freshman 197-pounder Tyler Moyer (Bremerton, Wash.) earned top-six finishes in the prestigious event. Of the 20 NCAA finalists this past spring, five of them competed in the event.
"The guys certainly got great experience competing in this event and it shows them what they are capable of," said Navy assistant coach Joel Sharratt, who traveled with the Navy contingent to Chicago. "We look at these spring competitions as preparation for next year. What they do next year starts in the spring."
Navy's top two finishes came from a pair of underclassmen. Prendergast, who posted an outstanding 20-9 record as a reserve this past year, finished fourth at the 264.5-pound weight class, recording a 5-2 mark. He scored victories over Harvard's All-American, Bode Ogunwole, as well as North Carolina's Dan Goetter. Both of his losses came to Nebraska's Stefan Tighe. Of Prendergast's four losses this spring, three of them have come to Tighe.
"Ed wrestled very well last weekend," said Sharratt. "Scoring wins over Ogunwole and Goetter should give him a big confidence boost heading into next year."
Moyer, meanwhile finished sixth at the 211.5-pound weight class with a 4-3 record. Moyer notched impressive victories over Shaun Dee and Illinois' Ben Zulauf. His losses were to Iowa State's Kurt Backes, Maryland's Hudson Taylor and Lehigh's Matt Cassidy. The Taylor and Cassidy losses were extremely tight. He was 13-7 last year at 197 pounds.
"If you equate it to the NCAA Tournament, both Ed and Tyler were All-Americans," said Sharratt.
Navy also got strong performances from sophomore Joel Ahern (Herkimer, N.Y.), who went 2-2 at the 145.5-pound weight class, junior John Jarred's (Kansas City, Mo.) 3-2 record at 163.0 pounds and sophomore Matt Stolpinski (Westfield, Mass.) at the 185.0-pound class (3-2). Stolpinski's losses were to a pair of highly-ranked NCAA qualifiers. Navy sophomore Justin Jacobs (LeRoy, Mich.) also competed in the 163.0-pound class, posting a 1-2 record.
Freestyle rules are different than collegiate rules in that the emphasis is on "neutral" wrestling and takedowns rather than "on the mat" wrestling. After a takedown, the refs stop the match after about 10 seconds on the mat and the two wrestlers start over on their feet. The matches are wrestled in three two-minute periods, with the winner being the wrestler who wins more periods. A fall ends the match at any time.
# GO NAVY #
