WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. (January 13, 2023)  – Eight different Ducks each won two bouts as No. 6 Stevens Institute of Technology wrestling won all three of its dual matches Friday on the opening day of the 34th annual Budd Whitehill Duals, hosted by Lycoming College at Lamade Gymnasium.

Junior Luke Hoerle, first-year Nico Diaz, senior Kyle Slendorn, sophomore Chris Stathopoulos, junior Stefan Major, junior Joel Martsinovsky and graduate student Michael Dooley each went a perfect 2-0 on the day, while senior Pasquale Vizzoni went 2-1 for the Ducks, who defeated Wesleyan University 34-12 in the opening match of the day before topping Wilkes University 35-16 and SUNY Cortland 29-10 to close out the day. The three victories pushed the Ducks' dual record to 6-1. The victory over the Cardinals to start the day marked the first meeting between the programs since 2011, while the triumph over Wilkes marked the Ducks' fifth win over the Colonels over the last six meetings. Meanwhile, the Ducks and the Red Dragons have split the last four meetings and interestingly, each of the last five meetings between the two programs have taken place in Pennsylvania.

Junior Andrew Finateri, senior Hunter Gutierrez, first-year Jason Smith and sophomore Harrison Hinojosa joined sophomore Blaise Wagner and senior Frank Medina in recording one win each to account for the Ducks' victories on the day. 

"It has been a long time since the last time we were on the mat; it felt good to be back and kick off the second half of the season," associate head coach Anthony Bonaventura said. "Overall, we competed well as a team on Day 1: a lot of points being scored and some high level wins for individuals during the three dual meets today. We are excited for the opportunity to compete in the championship bracket tomorrow and test ourselves against some quality programs."

The Ducks began the day by winning eight of the 10 contested bouts to post a 34-12 win over Wesleyan. Five of the Ducks' eight wins came with bonus points with Martsinovsky and Medina scoring pins of their respective opponents to combine for 12 points. Hoerle began the day with a 12-4 major over Greg Fischer to move to 12-0 and give the Ducks an early lead. Diaz scored a dominant 15-1 win over Shailen Savur at 133 to push the lead to 8-0. Max Martinez pinned first-year Justin Cilliota in the first period to pull Wesleyan within 8-6. Vizzoni followed with the first of his two wins on the day, earning a 7-3 decision victory over Jack Wemmilinger. A pin at 157 gave Wesleyan a 12-11 lead, but the Ducks won the next five bouts to win the dual. Stathopoulos and Major (over 14th-ranked Marco Gaita) posted consecutive decisions to begin the run, with Martsinovsky and Medina notching consecutive first-period pins to clinch the dual. Dooley closed out the victory with a dominant 16-0 tech fall over Kolton Gagnon to post the final margin of victory. 

The second dual of the day saw Stevens take on conference foe Wilkes. The Ducks won six of the eight contested bouts to post their second straight double-digit victory. The Ducks found themselves in an early hole after regionally-ranked Austin Fashouer pinned senior Arjun Khatri, who was making his season debut. The six-point deficit would be short-lived, however, as the Ducks won the next seven bouts to take control of the dual.     Finateri began the run with his seventh win of the year courtesy of a hard-fought 3-2 decision over Samuel Kimmel. Slendorn followed with a second-period pin of Braden Sitton and Vizzoni was awarded a forfeit at 149 to give the Ducks a 15-6 lead. 

Gutierrez continued the impressive sequence with a 7-3 decision over Jaryn Hartranft. Hinojosa recorded his fifth pin of the year with a second-period stoppage of Charles Everdale. Wagner followed with his first tech fall of the year, 22-7 over Souleymane Diarra, before Martsinovsky added another pin to his season resume with a first-period fall over John DeVito to account for the Ducks' final victory of the dual. Cameron Butka had a major decision (13-5) at 197 and Caleb Burkhart was awarded a forfeit win at 285 to account for the final margin of victory. 

In the final dual of the day, the Ducks won six of the nine contested bouts to record a 29-10 win over Cortland. Hoerle remained perfect on the season with an 18-2 tech fall over Cody Merwin to give the Ducks an early advantage. Diaz (decision win over Cortland's fourth-ranked Jayden Cardenas) and Slendorn (pin) posted back-to-back wins to give the Ducks a 14-0 lead before a 5-3 sudden-victory period decision win at 149 put Cortland on the board. The Ducks answered with three straight decisions to push their lead to 22-3 before Cortland totaled a combined seven points across the 184- and 197-pound bouts to make the score 23-10 and secure the dual victory. Dooley added six points to the board at heavyweight to produce the final margin of victory. 

Individually, Martsinovsky and Slendorn are tied with eight other wrestlers with two pins, although ranks third with a total time of 4:37. Wisconsin-Eau Claire's Jared Stricker leads all wrestlers in the tournament with three pins. Also of note, Dooley's tech fall in his opening match of the day is one of two tech falls in the tournament that came in the opening period and Wagner ranks third in the field after scoring 22 points in his victory over Diarra in the Ducks' dual with Wilkes. As a team, the Ducks are tied with Ithaca with 98 total points, nine behind Ohio Northern, who totaled 107 points in their three dual victories.

Also, in extra countable matches, first-year Vincent Principe and graduate student Jarrett Weir joined Wagner, Khatri, Vizzoni and Smith in picking up victories. The win for Khatri was his first of the year.

Up Next: No. 6 Stevens continues competition at the Budd Whitehill Duals Saturday. The Ducks will be placed in a pod with the winners of the other four groups for a four-team tournament to declare the tournament winner. The Ducks will take on No. 21 Ithaca in one half of the championship bracket with No. 13 Ohio Northern, the winner of Group 'C,' facing No. 8 Wisconsin-Eau Claire, the winner of Group 'D' on the other side of the bracket. The Ducks topped the Bombers 30-9 earlier this season and have won the last two duals between the teams. The action gets underway tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. and links for live stats and video are posted to StevensDucks.com.

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