Buffalo Wrestling Opens Up Dual Slate This Weekend In North Carolina
10/31/2014 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
BUFFALO, NY - The State University of New York, Buffalo wrestling team opens up their 2014-15 slate on Saturday afternoon as they travel to North Carolina to take on Campbell. On Sunday, the Bulls will head to the Appalachian State Duals as they will take on the host Mountaineers, Cumberland and Gardner-Webb.
In the second year under head coach John Stutzman, the Bulls will aim to continue the steady improvement that they showed from a season ago. Although the win total was not up to Stutzman's expectations, the culture of the program began to change and the team improved throughout the season.
BULLS TRAVEL TO NORTH CAROLINA
The State University of New York, Buffalo wrestling team opens up their 2014-15 slate this weekend as they travel down to North Carolina for four duals. On Saturday, the Bulls will head to Campbell University to take on the Fighting Camels in their first dual of the season. On Sunday, UB will head to the Appalachian State Duals as they will appear in three duals. They will take on the host Appalachian State, Gardner-Webb and Cumberland. The Bulls open up the season as one of the youngest teams in the nation as they have 27 wrestlers with two or less years of collegiate experience on their roster. The Bulls are led by a pair of fifth-year captains in Max Soria and Wally Maziarz.
UB OPENS UP NEW SLATE OF MATCHES ON SATURDAY
The Bulls are set to open up their 2014-15 season on Saturday against the Campbell Fighting Camels before traveling to the Appalachian State Duals for three duals. The Bulls will then head to three straight tournaments as they will compete in the Oklahoma Gold Classic, the NY State Collegiate Championships and the Northeast Duals. UB opens conference action on December 6 as they host Kent State at Alumni Arena. To open up January, the Bulls will head to one of the most prestigous tournaments in the country as they will participate in the Southern Scuffle for the first time. They close out their slate on the road at Northern Illinois on February 20.
SORIA LEADS THE WAY FOR THE BULLS
Choosing to stay at Buffalo for his fifth season, Max Soria will lead one of the youngest teams in the country this season. The Kings Park, NY native choose to come back because he believes in the direction that the UB program is headed under second-year head coach John Stutzman. Soria leads all active Bulls in career wins (60), dual wins (24), takedowns (71) and escapes (70). The captain will be an anchor at 125-pounds this season as he aims to lead the Bulls to an improvement on their three win season from a year ago.
MAZIARZ RETURNING FROM INJURY
Fifth-year senior captain Wally Maziarz not only enters the season as the unquestioned leader of a young group of guys but he also enters recovering from an off-season injury. The senior was hurt in a open tournament this summer but is recovering nicely and should be back in the Bulls starting lineup in upcoming weeks. Maziarz had a solid junior campaign that saw him win 14 matches to increase his career win total to 49 matches, ranking him second on the team behind Soria.
YOUTHFUL BULLS ROSTER
With a starting lineup that features only one senior, Max Soria, along with three true freshman, the UB Bulls roster is loaded with young talent. The Bulls have 27 grapplers on their current 30-man roster that have two or less years of wrestling experience at UB under their belts. The Bulls only have two senior on the squad this season and they welcome 17 freshman to the fold for season two under John Stutzman.
BULLS PICKED 9th IN MAC POLLS
After a tough 2014 campaign under first year head coach John Stutzman, the UB wrestling team was picked to finish 9th in the MAC preseason polls. Coming in at the top of the polls were defending MAC champs Missouri followed by Old Dominion, Northern Iowa, Kent State, Ohio, Central Michigan, Northern Illinois and Eastern Michigan. The Bulls will set their sights on surprsing MAC foes this season with a youthful lineup of talented grapplers.
SORIA AND MAZIARZ CHOOSEN AS CAPTAINS
Head Coach John Stutzman wasted no time selecting his captains for the season as he choose Max Soria and Wally Maziarz to lead his team. Both wrestlers are returning to Buffalo for their fifth season and will look to lead a young group to an improvement on their 2014 win total (three).
NCAA QUALIFIERS APLENTY
The growth of the Buffalo wrestling program has been noticable not only locally but also nationally. Over the past six seasons, the Bulls have produced 21 NCAA qualifying wrestlers after only producing six during the previous five seasons. Buffalo set a program record during the 2011 campaign as they had six wrestlers qualify for NCAA's. As a program, the Bulls have notched 45 NCAA qualifiers since the 1996 season. Last season Nick Flannery was UB's lone qualifier at 141-pounds.
STUTZMAN'S SECOND YEAR SUCCESS
After a standout career on the mats in Alumni Arena, John Stutzman will begin a new era of Buffalo wrestling as its head coach. After eight seasons developing Bloomsburg into a national power, Stutzman begins season two at Buffalo. Stutzman has a great reputition for being a winner, earning double digit victories in six of eight seasons at Bloomsburg. In his second season at his previous school, Stutzman led the Huskies to a record of 12-9 while having multiple grapplers qualify for the NCAA tournament.
ROOSA AND GRANT ADDED TO THE COACHING STAFF
Looking to add some more familiarity to his program, head coach John Stutzman added a pair of coaches for the 2014-15 season. Stutzman added Josh Roosa as an assistant coach and Justin Grant as a volunteer assistant. Roosa graduated in 2012 from Bloomsburg where he was a national qualifier while wrestling for Stutzman. Roosa will work with the Bulls lighter weight wrestlers. Grant joins after graduating last season from Bloomsburg where he also wrestled for Stutzman for three season. The two-time national championships qualifier comes to Buffalo and will work with the heavyweights, a weight that the Bulls struggled at last season.
