WRESTLING

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LOCK HAVEN, PA - The University at Buffalo participated in the prestigious Mat Town USA Tournament on Saturday, finishing seventh of ten teams with 73.5 points. Purdue won the event with 167.5, followed by Nebraska (156.5), Penn State (147), Lock Haven (102.5) and Ohio University (102.5).

Gary Cooper

Buffalo's top finisher on the day was senior Gary Cooper (Adams, NY/South Jefferson). Cooper rebounded from a loss in the 174-pound semifinals by claiming a pair of matches to earn third place. After losing to No. 1 ranked Ryan Lange of Purdue in the semifinals, Cooper bounced back to defeat Ohio's Ed Willis, 8-4, before pinning Lock Haven's Eric O'Connor at 2:49 to take third place.

Buffalo also saw Garrett Bontempo (DuBois, PA/DuBois) and Kyle Cerminara (Lewiston, NY/Lewiston-Porter) earn fourth-place finishes while freshmen Mark Budd (Orrville, OH/Orrville) and Tom Curl (Gibbstown, NJ/Paulsboro) finished sixth.

Bontempo lost to Nebraska's B.J. Padden in the semifinals by a narrow 10-6 score before working his way through the wrestlebacks for a fourth place finish. Bontempo scored a fall over Lock Haven's Dan Riggs (1:02) before losing to Purdue's Ben Wissel by a 4-3 score in the third/fourth place match.

Cerminara, meanwhile, was a few points from being in the 197-pound finals. Cerminara dropped a 5-3 decision to No. 2-ranked Jon Bush of Purdue in the semifinals, but rebounded with an 8-5 win over Ohio's Joel Weimer. He lost, however, 3-2 to Penn State's Ryan Cummins in the third/fourth place match.

Budd, meanwhile, battled through an extremely competitive 125-pound class for sixth place after losing his first match of the day. He then reeled off two victories, including over teammate Mike Sebaaly (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) in wrestlebacks, before losing to Pittsburgh's Jordan Sianni, 6-0. Curl lost to Purdue's Isreal Blevins in overtime to start the event, but came back to claim sixth place with a pair of wins in the wrestlebacks, including an 8-2 win over Lock Haven's Steve Itterly, avenging a 3-2 loss in a dual meet earlier this year.

The Bulls next compete at the Beast of the East Collegiate Tournament at the University of Delaware on Dec. 20th. Teams expected to compete are Virginia Tech, Old Dominion, Princeton, Drexel, George Mason, Citadel, Binghamton and Bloomsburg.