UB Wrestling Heads To Albany On Saturday For The Northeast Duals
11/26/2014 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
BUFFALO, NY - Fresh off an impressive fourth place showing at the NYS Collegiate Championships, the State University of New York, Buffalo wrestling team heads to Albany for the Northeast Duals on Saturday morning. The Bulls will have duals against Sacred Heart, Rutgers and Wyoming as they look to improve on their 3-1 dual meet record so far this season.
BULLS HEAD TO NORTHEAST DUALS ON SATURDAY
The Bulls are entering their dual meet section of their 2014-15 season on Saturday as they head to the Northeast Duals for three dual meets against strong competition. The Bulls will match up against Sacred Heart, Rutgers and Wyoming as they look to beat last season's win total of three before the conference season even begins. UB is coming off of a strong showing at the NYS Collegiate Championships on Sunday and they have already compiled a dual meet record of 3-1 on the season. The Bulls are led by a starting lineup with two senior captains and five freshman grapplers.
UB PICKS UP 4th PLACE FINISH AT NYS CHAMPIONSHIPS
On Sunday at Cornell, the State University of New York, Buffalo Bulls had their best showing of the season as they collected a fourth place finish, out of 27 schools, at the NYS Collegiate Championships. Shinning the brightest for the Bulls on Sunday was senior captain Max Soria who kept his perfect record in tact as he finished off his tournament with a title at 125-pounds as he went 4-0 in the "A" Bracket. With the win, Soria claimed his first NYS Championship at 125-pounds and now has a overall record of 11-0 on the season. The Bulls also had three grapplers, Wally Maziarz, Jason Estevez and Joe Ariola, take home second place finishes while five other Bulls earned place finishes in the "A" Bracket. Buffalo also had a strong showing in the "B" Bracket as James Benjamin and Jake Gunning earned first place finishes.
SORIA ENTERS NATIONAL RANKINGS
Choosing to stay at Buffalo for his fifth season, Max Soria seems to have made the right choice as he improved to a perfect 11-0 on the season Sunday and entered the national rankings on Tuesday. Soria is currently ranked 12th by the Open Mat and 18th by WIN Magazine while earning 26th ranking by Wrestlingreport.com. The Kings Park, NY native earned his first-ever NYS Championship title at 125-pounds on Sunday as he went 4-0, giving him his best start to a season in his career. Soria leads all active Bulls in career wins (71), dual wins (27), takedowns (75) and riding time points (16). The team captain will aim to rise in the rankings as the Bulls enter the meat of their dual meet season.
MAZIARZ BACK TO 100 PERCENT
Fifth-year senior captain Wally Maziarz, the unquestioned leader of a young squad, seems to be back to 100 percent following an offseason injury saw him miss time early on this season. The senior had hs best showing of the season on Sunday at the NYS Collegiate Championships as he earned a 2nd place finish at 157-pounds. He went 3-1 with his lone loss coming in the finals to a nationally ranked opponent from Army. Maziarz currently ranks second on the team, behind fellow captain Max Soria, with 54 wins, 13 dual meet wins, 24 takedowns and seven riding time points for his career.
YOUTHFUL BULLS GAINING VALUABLE EXPERIENCE
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. Sean Peacock (11-4), Justin Cooksey (5-4) and Ian James (1-2) have earned solid experience already as they are in UB's starting lineup. Jake Gunning has been a pleasant surprise so far as he has compiled 18 wins while Rocco Russo led all grapplers last weekend at the NYS Championships with four pins.
BULLstrong
The State University of New York, Buffalo wrestling team has already matched their win total from a season ago just one weekend into the season. The Bulls picked up three wins in the opening weekend of the season after compiling a 3-17 overall record last season in a rebuilding year under first-year head coach John Stutzman. This season the Bulls started out strong as Stutzman has instilled his way of wrestling into the youthful squad. Entering this year, the Bulls had 17 freshman on the squad with many of them contributing towards the Bulls 3-1 start. UB picked up their best win of the season on the second day as they defeated Appalachian State who had multiple nationally ranked wrestlers.
SORIA AND MAZIARZ TABBED 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.
Bulls Probable Lineup (Overall, Dual meet)
125 - Max Soria (11-0, 3-0)
133 - Sean Peacock (11-4, 4-0)
141 - Jason Estevez (6-2, 3-1)
149 - Justin Cooksey (5-4, 2-2)
157 - Wally Maziarz (5-4, 0-0)
165 - Rrok Ndokaj (5-4, 2-1)
174 - Muhamid McBryde (4-6, 1-1)
184 - Tony Lock (2-3, 0-0)
197 - Joe Ariola (8-4, 3-1)
285 - Ian James (1-2, 0-0)
