The Rutgers wrestling program, under the guidance of first-year head coach Scott Goodale, went 1-1 in a trimeet with Rider and Clarion on Saturday. The Scarlet Knights defeated Clarion 23- 9 before falling to the tri-meet host, Rider, in a tightly contested 19-13 match. In the first match of the day, Rider defeated Clarion 24-16.
In RU’s first match, Clarion won the first two bouts. Redshirt senior Steve Adamcsik put the Scarlet Knights on the board with a 16-3 major decision over Clarion’s Sal Lascari at 141 pounds, and Jack Barrett followed with a 6-4 win at 149 to give RU the lead, 7-6. Clarion took its last lead of the match as Chris Norrell fell 6-4 at 157, but RU won the last five contests to pull away with the victory. Matt Pletcher picked up his 21st win of the season, an 11-3 major decision at 165, Mike Whalen won at 174 pounds 3-1, Keith Dobish and Lamar Brown picked up one point victories, 5-4 at 184 and 3-2 at 197, respectively, and Karim Mahmoud won the heavyweight bout 8-2 to give Rutgers the 23-9 victory.
In the final dual of the day, RU and Rider squared off. The two squads split the first eight bouts, as Fikslin won 4-3 at 125, DeMarco fell 12-5 at 133, Adamcsik won 141 7-1, Barrett fell at 149 7-4, Norrell dropped the 157 contest 10-5 and Pletcher picked up his team-leading 22nd win, 4-2 in overtime at 165.
Whalen earned a 20-7 major decision win at 174 but Rider tied the match at 13 when Dobish lost by major decision 9-1 at 184. After Brown fell 4-0 to give Rider the 16-13 lead, Mahmoud did everything he could to tie the match but could not pull out the win, losing 5-3, and Rider took first place in the tri-meet with a 19-13 victory.