Caracciolo takes third to lead Wrestling at Williams Open
WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts - The American International College wrestling team competed at the Williams Open hosted by Williams College on Saturday, January 6.
At 125, Liam Pritchard-Holland was able to grab one win, pinning Geddiel Lopez of Western New England in 3:36.
Joseph Aldrich dropped his opening match at 133, but rebounded to pin Jacob Meyers of Springfield Technical Community College at 1:14 and earned an injury default win before pinning Williams's Enzo Bell at the 4:00 to take fifth in his weight class.
Aaron Morocho kicked off his day at 141 with a 4-3 sudden victory win against Ayden Cheng of Western New England. After a setback, he downed Kevin Sevigny of Springfield with a 16-2 major decision and more comfortably dispatched Cheng again, 8-3, to advance to the fifth place match. There, he won a high-scoring 22-9 major decision over Springfield Technical Community College's Spencer Miltimore to take fifth.
Luke Mangiafico took two wins via fall in the 149 bracket, putting the shoulders down of Justin Figueiredo of Roger Williams in 2:07 and downing Mason Preble of Springfield in just 1:15.
At 157, Kyrie Williams scored a win, defeating Springfield's Nick Piatti 10-5.
Joshua Nieroda gathered three wins at 174. He pinned Williams's Cullen Davis at 3:32 and then garnered a 20-3 technical fall over Norwich's Ethan Tanner before winning over Plymouth State's Colin Hile via fall at 1:32. Ultimately, he finished seventh in the weight class.
AIC had two entrants at 184 and both won their openers as Matt Bremner majored Colin Riley of Western New England 16-3 and Markys Lissaint pinned Carlos Barrios of Plymouth State at 3:57. After subsequent losses, each faced the foe their teammate had previously battled, and both earned wins; Lissaint pinned Riley at 2:21 and Bremner took a 9-3 decision over Barrios before both bowed out in the next round.
The big showing of the day was Tommy Caracciolo at 197; he pinned David LaPrade of the hosts in 1:28 before beating the whistle to pin Aidan DeLuca of Western New England at 6:48. Faltering in the semifinal, he bounced back to pin Elias Chen of Williams at 6:49 to take third place.
The team next heads to the Will Abele Invitational at Ursinius College on Saturday, January 13.