Penn College teams have a busy Saturday

 

Penn College teams have busy Saturday

Pennsylvania College of Technology wrestlers placed fifth in a 15-team invitational field Saturday, while the college’s basketball teams opened United East play with road losses.

FLASHBACK
Wrestling
At the RIT Invitational, the Wildcats came away with one individual second-place finish, two thirds, one fifth and one sixth.

Isaac Cory, of Montoursville, seeded No. 1 in the 184-pound weight class, won his first four matches — three by pin — before medical forfeiting his bout in the final and finishing second. He is 10-0 on the season.

Noah Hunt, of Muncy, seeded second, capped a 5-1 day with a win by major decision in the 141-pound third-place consolation match and Ryan Berstler, of Middletown, seeded fourth, ended 5-1 on the day with a decision win in the third-place consolation bout at 125.

Also for Penn College, Patrick Snoke, of Northampton, seeded fourth, went 3-2 and finished fifth at 133, while Mason Leshock, of Shamokin, seeded fifth, went 3-0 — all by fall — and ended sixth at 165 after medical forfeiting his last two bouts.

“This was an excellent milestone for our program at the always-tough RIT Invitational,” coach Pankil Chander said. “We brought the fight all day in a deep field that included a top 10 nationally ranked program in John Carroll (Ohio). Like we talk about all the time, we competed with full hearts and with gratitude for the opportunity. I’m proud of the fight of this group.

“We had several solid performances from top to bottom. We are improving every week and the points we’re scoring reflect that. At our first tournament of the season (Ned McGinley), we scored 52.5 points, at the ECWC Championships 82 and (Saturday) we scored 93 points.

“Tournaments like these provide a lot of great information on areas we need to continually develop. We executed better in close matches and when we were trailing —  that’s certainly an area of continuous improvement for our young team.

“By the numbers:
• 5th out of 15 teams in the team race (we were 13th out of 16 teams at this event last year).
• Scored 49 more points than last year at this event.
• First time in program history bringing home five medals at a tournament.
• Finished ahead of three programs that finished ahead of us in the conference two weeks ago (Oswego, Oneonta and Alfred State).
• Cory major decisioned the 2022 Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference runner-up by a score of 19-7.
• Highest team finish with the least number of wrestlers entered out of the top five teams.”

Men’s basketball
Homestanding Mt. Aloysius College used a 52-point second half to turn back Penn College on Wednesday, 101-72. Gavin Barrett, of Roselle, New Jersey, led the Wildcats with 22 points, while Obens Luxama, of Port St. Lucie, Florida, connected on 4 of 5 3-point shots and added 12 points.

On Saturday at Lancaster Bible College, the Wildcats fell, 88-66, and saw their overall record leveled at 4-4. After falling behind 16-0 at the start, Penn College fought back to tie at 47 before LB pulled away for good. Barrett led Penn College with 21 points and six rebounds, while Rees Watkins, of Loyalsock Township, added 10 points.

Women’s basketball
Penn College dropped a 67-49 decision at Penn State Altoona in nonconference women’s basketball action on Wednesday. Rachel Teats, of Middleburg, finished with 16 points for the Wildcats.

In its UE opener on Saturday at once-beaten Lancaster Bible College, Penn College played tough but was outscored in every quarter in a 51-41 loss that dropped it to 1-5 overall. Teats scored 11 points and pulled down 14 rebounds, while Emily Pardee, of Williamsport, added 10 points.

SCHEDULES/RECORDS
Wrestling
Overall: 1-1
ECWC: 0-0
Saturday, Dec. 3 — at RIT Invitational, 5 of 15
Monday, Dec. 19 — at King’s College Quad Match with New Jersey City University, King’s College and Pitt-Bradford, TBA
Thursday, Dec. 22 — at Wilkes University Open, 9:30 a.m.
Saturday, Jan. 7 — at 11th Waynesburg University Invitational, 10 a.m.

Men’s basketball
Overall: 4-4
UE: 0-1
Wednesday, Nov. 30 — at Mt. Aloysius College, L, 101-72
Saturday, Dec. 3 — at Lancaster Bible College (UE), L, 88-66
Monday, Dec. 12 — at King’s College, 4 p.m.
Monday, Jan. 2 — at Centenary University, 5 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 6 — host Penn State Harrisburg (UE), 7 p.m.

Women’s basketball
Overall: 1-5
UE: 0-1
Wednesday, Nov. 30 — at Penn State Altoona, L, 67-49
Saturday, Dec. 3 — at Lancaster Bible College (UE), L, 51-41
Friday, Dec. 9 — host Penn State Altoona, 5 p.m.
Saturday, Dec. 10 — host Houghton College, 1 p.m.
Wednesday, Dec. 28 — CUNY Coaches vs. Cancer at Lehman College, Bronx, NY: Penn College vs. Lehman College, 2 p.m. (Neumann vs. William Paterson, noon)
Thursday, Dec. 29 — CUNY Coaches vs. Cancer at Lehman College, Bronx, NY: Consolation, noon; Championship, 2 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 6 — host Penn State Harrisburg (UE), 5 p.m.

Esports
Collegiate iRacing League GT3 Challenge
Tuesday, Nov. 29 — Red Bull Ring, 7 of 30

Collegiate iRacing League Premier Series
Tuesday, Dec. 6 — Michigan, 9 p.m.

For more about the United East, visit the conference website.
For additional information, visit the Wildcats Athletics website.