Rutgers Wrestling splits on the day at Grapple at the Garden

Now in its fifth year, the Grapple at the Garden has become an early season showcase for teams, especially eastern schools. It includes youth and high school teams; it was something different for the World's Most Famous Arena, and it has been a success.

And in each year of its existence, the Grapple had invited Rutgers to be a part of the event. Rutgers this year did what it did in the first two years at the Garden, splitting its matches, topping Columbia, 39-3 and then losing to No. 8 Cornell, 28-10.

Columbia won only one match against the Knights, that at heavyweight. In it’s nine wins, Rutgers had four victories with bonus points. It included falls by Scott Delvecchio and Nick Gravina along with an Anthony Ashnault tech fall and an Anthony Giraldo major. It also included an upset by redshirt freshman Willie Scott.

The competition against Cornell was a lot stiffer. Cornell entered the match with five ranked wrestlers and four of them won against the Knights. The Big Red’s No. 19 Joey Galasso was the only ranked competitor to lose as he dropped a 6-0 decision to RU’s No. 10 Ken Theobold. The only other pairing of ranked wrestlers came at 184 pounds with No. 1 Gabe Dean scoring a major decision over the Knights’ No. 13 Nick Gravina, 16-3.

“We got beat at 125 at 133 (Tyson Dippery, ranked No. 13), and I’m not blaming those guys, but that was the biggest part of the match right there,” said head coach Scott Goodale of the Cornell dual. “Trying to play catchup against one of the best teams in the country is a really, really hard thing to do.”

Rutgers strength is at the lower end of the weight classes while Cornell is the opposite, having ranked wrestlers at 165, 174, 184, and heavyweight.

Previous Results for Grapple at the Garden

In its five years, Rutgers has gone 7-3 at the event.

2015: RU 47 George Mason 0 || RU 21 Cornell 13

2014: RU 24 Army 13 || RU 46 Davidson 3

2013: RU 29 George Mason 10 || Maryland 19 RU 18

2012: No. 14 Nebraska 22 RU 10 || RU 28 Chattanooga 12

National Rankings

New individual and team rankings come out on Tuesday. Whether RU holds at No. 10 is a question - losing to a higher ranked team isn’t necessarily a negative.

Up Next

Rutgers will be at the Hofstra Invitational next Sunday.

2016 Grapple at the Garden results

No. 10 Rutgers (5-0) 39, Columbia (0-1) 3

125: Sean McCabe (RU) wins by forfeit; Rutgers leads, 6-0

133: Scott DelVecchio (RU) wins by fall over Alec Kelly (CU), 5:46; Rutgers leads, 12-0

141: No. 5/5/6 Anthony Ashnault (RU) tech fall over Jacob Macalolooy (CU), 18-3; Rutgers leads, 17-0

149: Anthony Giraldo (RU) major dec. over Dan Reed (CU), 13-1; Rutgers leads, 21-0

157: John Van Brill (RU) dec. over Tyler Ponte (CU), 4-0; Rutgers leads, 24-0

165: Willie Scott (RU) dec. over No. NR/15/14 Tyrel White (CU), 8-6 (SV); Rutgers leads, 27-0

174: Jordan Pagano (RU) dec. over Austin Coniker (CU), 6-0; Rutgers leads, 30-0

184: No. 13/13/11 Nicholas Gravina (RU) wins by fall over Donny Donnelly (CU), 0:57; Rutgers leads, 36-0

197: Matthew Correnti (RU) dec. over over Matt Doggett (CU), 6-1; Rutgers leads, 39-0

HWT: No. NR/NR/19 Garrett Ryan (CU) dec. over Razohnn Gross (RU), 9-2; Rutgers wins, 39-3

No. 8 Cornell (3-0) 28, No. 10 Rutgers (5-1) 10

125: Noah Baughman (CU) dec. over Sean McCabe (RU), 3-1; Cornell leads, 3-0

133: No. NR/17/NR Mark Grey (CU) dec. over No. 13/14/18 Tyson Dippery (RU), 6-4; Cornell leads, 6-0

141: No. 5/5/6 Anthony Ashnault (RU) dec. over Will Koll (CU), 6-4; Cornell leads, 6-3

149: No. 10/9/12 Ken Theobold (RU) dec. over No. 19/NR/7 Joey Galasso (CU), 6-0; Dual tied, 6-6

157: John Van Brill (RU) major dec. over Taylor Simaz (CU), 8-0; Rutgers leads, 10-6

165: No. 20/NR/NR Brandon Womack (CU) wins by fall over Willie Scott (RU), 4:24; Cornell leads, 12-10

174: No. 5/5/6 Brian Realbuto (CU) dec. over Phillip Bakuckas (RU), 4-2; Cornell leads, 15-10

184: No. 1/1/1 Gabe Dean (CU) major dec. over No. 13/13/11 Nicholas Gravina (RU), 16-3; Cornell leads, 19-10

197: Ben Honis (CU) dec. over Anthony Messner (RU), 4-0; Cornell leads, 22-10

HWT: No. 19/NR/NR Jeramy Sweany (CU) wins by fall over Razohnn Gross (RU), 4:32; Cornell wins, 28-10

Rankings (-/-/-): InterMat / FloWrestling/The Open Mat; NR denotes not ranked