Nickerson Breaks Cornell Record in 28-10 Victory

The wrestling team knows it is incredibly talented. That explains the feeling of disappointment the team conveyed after its 28-10 domination over Eastern Michigan. The second-ranked Red won seven of 10 matches en route to a comfortable victory. Nevertheless, the team believed it could have done better.
“We can’t be disappointed with the result because we won and it was a fairly decent margin of victory, but everybody feels that we came out a little flat yesterday,” said sophomore Justin Kerber. “We didn’t have a lot of energy and we were pretty disappointed with how we wrestled.”
The Red was still recuperating from last weekend, when it defeated two top-five ranked teams at the National Duals. As part of the recovery, undefeated sophomore Mack Lewnes did not compete against Eastern Michigan.
One wrestler who did wrestle — and wrestled well — was junior Troy Nickerson. Competing at 125 pounds, Nickerson broke the school record for fastest pin. He took down his opponent and pinned him on his back after 13 seconds.
Sophomore Mike Grey, on the other hand, did not have one of his better matches. He fell behind 5-0 in the first period and eventually lost by major decision.
Classmate Corey Manson also struggled. He lost 6-2 in the 141-pound match-up.
Fellow sophomore DJ Meagher had one of the most impressive performances of the day for Cornell. He won 9-0, earning a major decision for the Red.
“All of his teammates that wrestle him in practice and get beat by him know how good he is, but he doesn’t know yet just how good he is,” said senior Jordan Leen. “Matches like yesterday where he dominated a good opponent will hopefully prove to him that he’s a top-10 guy in the country.”
Leen had an impressive victory of his own, although he was not thrilled with his performance. Leen shutout his opponent and earned five points for the Red.
“I think the way I wrestled was pretty reflective of the way the team wrestled,” Leen said. “Even if it wasn’t obvious, my feet weren’t moving well. I wasn’t being disciplined with my stance. I wasn’t wrestling right the entire match, especially that first period. I was pretty flat.”
With Lewnes out, junior John Basting got a chance to wrestle at 165. He did not dominate, but came back from an early takedown to win, 5-2. At 174 pounds, junior Steve Anceravage was on the victorious side of a high scoring battle. Anceravage won 19-10, earning a major decision.
Kerber wrestled at 184 pounds. He earned an early takedown and then held on for a 4-2 victory.
“I did OK,” Kerber said. “I got a takedown early in the match, but I didn’t do a lot to build on my lead. In the future, I need to continue to build that lead.”
Junior Matt Panasevich struggled at 197 pounds, where he was defeated by a 6-1 margin. Senior Zach Hammond used two first period takedowns to earn a 5-3 victory.