Bulldog Wrestling begins 2018-19 season at Rutgers Quad Meet Saturday

Saturday, November 3

Piscataway, NJ

7:00 A.M. PT

Fresno State

(D-III) No. 3 Johnson & Wales

Photo by: Keith Kountz/Fresno St

Bulldog Wrestling begins 2018-19 season at Rutgers Quad Meet Saturday

11/2/2018 7:00:00 AM | Wrestling

2018-19 Fresno State Wrestling Fact Book (PDF)2018-19 Fresno State Wrestling Quick Facts (PDF)

Fresno State Wrestling gets its second season back in the Valley underway on Saturday morning traveling to New Jersey to compete at the Rutgers Quad Meet hosted at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

By: Travis Blanshan / Assistant Director of Communications

FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno State Wrestling gets its second season back in the Valley underway on Saturday morning traveling to New Jersey to compete at the Rutgers Quad Meet hosted at the Rutgers Athletic Center.

"We are excited to get out on the road and start the season," said head coach Troy Steiner. "It will be a tough opening weekend with Rutgers and some other good competition and we are excited to see the team perform."

Fresno State vs. No. 3 (Div. III) Johnson & Wales
Nov. 3, 2018 • 7:00 A.M. PT • Rutgers Athletic Center • Piscataway, N.J.
Live Scoring: Trackwrestling.com & Takedown Live App
Video: N/A
Twitter: @FresnoStateWRES
Series History: First meeting
Last Meeting: N/A

Fresno State at No. 13 Rutgers
Nov. 3, 2018 • 8:30 A.M. PT • Rutgers Athletic Center • Piscataway, N.J.
Live Scoring: Trackwrestling.com & Takedown Live App
Video: Big Ten Plus Lou Brogno (play-by-play) and Nick Kosko (analyst)
Twitter: @FresnoStateWRES
Series History: First meeting
Last Meeting: N/A

Fresno State vs. Centenary (Div. III)
Nov. 3, 2018 • 10:00 A.M. PT • Rutgers Athletic Center • Piscataway, N.J.
Live Scoring: Trackwrestling.com & Takedown Live App
Video: N/A
Twitter: @FresnoStateWRES
Series History: First meeting
Last Meeting: N/A

Scouting No. 3 (D-III) Johnson & Wales (R.I.)
Led by 22nd-year head coach Lonnie Morris, Johnson & Wales, located in Providence, R.I., enters the season ranked number three in the InterMat Division III preseason poll. The Wildcats finished sixth at the 2018 Division III NCAA Championships after winning the Northeast Regional and went 21-2 in duals meets in the 2017-18 season.

Johnson & Wales returns three All-Americans from a season ago, including defending 125-pound national champion Jay Albis who returns for his senior season. Fellow seniors Joe Ferinde and Khamri Thomas return at 141 and 184 pounds, respectively as each placed eighth at last year's NCAA Championships. Albis is the top-ranked wrestler at 125 pounds, Thomas is ranked third in the InterMat preseason poll at 184 pounds and Ferinde is sixth at 141 pounds.

Scouting No. 13 Rutgers
Now in his 12th season, Scott Goodale leads an experienced Rutgers team this season that is coming off its highest team finish at the NCAA Championships after placing 11th in 2018.

Junior Nick Suriano returns at 125/133 pounds after being the Scarlet Knights' first NCAA finalist in program history last season making the finals at 125 pounds. He comes into this year ranked second in the preseason polls at No. 2 at 125 pounds by Intermat, FloWrestling and Trackwrestling while he is third at 133 pounds by WIN Magazine.

Rutgers, who is ranked as high as No. 13 in the preseason by Trackwrestling, went 8-7 in dual meets a season ago with a 3-6 mark in the Big Ten while placing 11th at the 2018 Big Ten Championships with 42.5 points.

A deep team, the Scarlet Knights also return five other student-athletes who have made the NCAA Championships while at Rutgers. Sixth-year senior Anthony Ashnault returns at 149 pounds after missing the 2017-18 season due to injury and is a three-time All-American. Ashnault opens the season ranked second by InterMat at 149 pounds.

Seniors John Van Brill and Nick Gravina check in ninth and 13th, respectively at 157 and 184 pounds by InterMat as each return after both narrowly missing All-American status in 2018. Gravina will not wrestle this weekend, but in his place at 184 pounds will be fifth-year senior Jordan Pagano who along with Matthew Correnti at 197 pounds made the NCAA Championships in 2017.

Scouting Centenary (N.J.)
With John Garriques now in his 13th season as the head coach at Centenary, located in Hackettstown, N.J., the Cyclones placed 32nd at the 2018 Division III NCAA Championships and took third at the Mideast Regional Championships.

Centenary went 12-2 in duals in 2017-18 and return a pair of NCAA Championship qualifiers in senior Christopher Muce at 157 pounds and senior Etiini Udott at 197 pounds. Udott enters the season ranked No. 2 by InterMat after placing fifth at the Division III NCAA Championships in 2018.

Fresno State Projected Lineup this weekend
125: Jeremy Trinh, RFr. OR Robert Garcia IV, RFr.
133: Gary Joint, RFr.
141: Chris Deloza, So.
149: No. 20/18 Khristian Olivas, RJr. *WIN Magazine/Trackwrestling rankings
157: Isaiah Hokit, RJr. OR Jacob Wright, RFr.
165: Brandon Martino, RFr.
174: Ricky Padilla, RJr. OR Dominic Kincaid, RJr.
184: Jackson Hemauer, RFr.
197: Richie Brandt, RJr. OR Danny Salas, RFr.
HWT: No. 20 AJ Nevills, So.
*Intermat rankings

Johnson & Wales Projected Lineup
125: No. 1 Jay Albis, Sr.
133: Jordan Robinson, So.
141: No. 6 Joe Ferinde, Sr.
149: Da'mani Burns, Jr.
157: Malik Rasheed, Jr.
165: Nick Munsch, Jr.
174: Adrian Gonzalez, Sr.
184: No. 3 Khamri Thomas, Sr.
197: No. 4 Michael DiNardo, Jr.
Hwt.: Liridon Leka, Jr.
*Intermat Division III rankings

Rutgers Projected Lineup
125: Shane Metzler. So. -OR- Nick DeNora, R-Fr.
133: No. 2 Nick Suriano, Jr. -OR- Kyle DiNapoli, R-So.
141: Michael Van Brill. R-So. -OR- Robert Cleary, R-Fr.
149: No. 2 Anthony Ashnault, Gr.-Sr. -OR- Jake Benner, Fr.
157: No. 9 John Van Brill, Gr.-Sr.
165: Stephan Glasgow, Fr.
174: Joseph Grello, R-So. -OR- Willie Scott, R-Jr.
184: Jordan Pagano, R-Sr.
197: Matthew Correnti, R-So. -OR- Max Wright, Fr.
HWT: Christian Colucci, R-Jr. -OR- Ralph Normandia, R-Sr.
*Intermat rankings

Centenary Projected Lineup
125: Jacy Jones, Fr.
133: Bobby Demeter, Jr.
141: Cameron Bruffy, Fr.
149: Logan Long, Fr.
157: Chris Muce, Sr.
165: Jeremey Nurnberger, Jr.
174: Jordan Juliano, Sr.
184: Justin Hopman, Fr.
197: No. 2 Etiini Udott, Sr.
285: Jerold Goodman, Jr.
*Intermat Division III rankings

Bulldog Wrestling opens second season back in the Central Valley
Fresno State Wrestling got its start in 196-62 and competed in Division II for seven seasons before making the move to Division I in 1968-69 where they competed for 38 seasons. After an 11-year absence following the 2005-06 season, the 'Dogs got back on the mat on Nov. 11, 2017 with a 35-12 win at San Francisco State.

The 'Dogs hold an all-time dual meet record of 448-352-7 (.559), have won 11 conference titles and finished in the top 25 at the NCAA Tournament 14 times.

Fresno State vs. Big Ten opponents
The Bulldogs will see all three of this weekend's opponents for the first time in program history. Rutgers is one of the three Big Ten programs Fresno State has never had a dual against with Michigan and Wisconsin being the other two.

The 'Dogs are 9-26-1 against the11 Big Ten opponents with Minnesota being the most common opponent with eight meetings followed by Ohio State (6), Purdue (4), Nebraska (4), Illinois (3), Iowa (3), Northwestern (3), Indiana (2), Maryland (1), Michigan State (1) and Penn State (1).

Fresno State hosted Illinois and traveled to Minnesota in 2017-18 and host the Golden Gophers this season on Dec. 8 at the Save Mart Center. The Bulldogs also travel to Big Ten country for the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships on Dec. 29-30 hosted by Northwestern in Hoffman Estates, Ill.

Red Team narrowly defeats Blue Team in Wrestle-offs
Last Saturday (Oct. 27) afternoon, in front of a packed crowd at the Fresno State Recreation Center, the Red Team defeated the Blue Team, 15-12 in a tightly contested dual.

With only one of the eight matches featuring bonus points, the dual came down to the final match as Khristian Olivas from the Red Team edged Lawrence Saenz from the Blue Team at 149 pounds with a 8-6 win. Complete results came be found here.

'Dogs in the national rankings
A pair of Bulldogs find themselves in the preseason national rankings as sophomore heavyweight AJ Nevills is ranked in the top 20 by all five ranking publications. The Clovis native, who collected a team-high 28 wins and was the Big 12 runner-up in 2018, is ranked No. 17 by FloWrestling, Trackwrestling and WIN Magazine, No. 18 by The Open Mat and No. 20 by InterMat.

149-pound redshirt junior Khristian Olivas is ranked No. 18 by Trackwrestling and No. 20 by WIN Magazine and returns to the lineup after posting 27 wins and qualifying for the NCAA Championships a season ago.

Olivas, who went 4-1 against ranked opponents in the regular season a year ago, will face a tough test right off the bat this season facing No. 2 ranked Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers in his second match of the afternoon.

Bulldogs coming off redshirt seasons
Eight Bulldogs are coming off redshirt seasons a year ago while getting their feet wet with Division I competition competing at open tournaments.

Seven of the eight 'Dogs are expected to make their official Fresno State debuts this weekend as Jeremy Trinh and Robert Garcia IV at 125 pounds, Gary Joint (133 lbs.), Jacob Wright (157 lbs.), Brandon Martino (165 lbs.), Jackson Hemauer (184 lbs.) and Danny Salas (197 lbs.) are all expected to compete in the quad meet.

Eight newcomers join the 'Dogs this season
In addition to the eight Bulldogs who redshirted last season, the 'Dogs add eight newcomers to the fold in 2018-19, including seven true freshman.

The Bulldogs add four California natives in Clovis native and four-time California High School state champion Justin Mejia along with Isaiah Perez from Turlock, Lawrence Saenz from Vacaville and Joseph Delgado from Gilroy.

The 'Dogs also bring in Air Force transfer Ricky Padilla, a San Dimas, Calif. native, in addition to Adam Kemp from Illinois, Nick Casperson from South Dakota and Hunter Cruz from Washington.

Home Opener on Nov. 16 vs. North Dakota State
The Bulldogs are two weeks away from opening their home schedule with Big 12 opponent North Dakota State on Friday, Nov. 16 at the Save Mart Center at 7 p.m.

It will be the 'Dogs first-ever dual against the Bison and will be one of seven home duals in 2018-19. Purchase your season tickets HERE!

Second Annual Battle on the Midway set for Nov. 20 - Buy Tickets HERE!
Fresno State will compete in the second-annual "Battle on the Midway" wrestling showcase, presented by Left Coast Wrestling, taking on Stanford on the flight deck of the famed aircraft carrier USS Midway in San Diego on Tuesday, Nov. 20.

This marks the Bulldogs' second-consecutive appearance in the Battle on the Midway after falling to fellow Big 12 opponent Air Force, 24-12, in the inaugural event last November. Gates are set to open at 6 p.m., with preliminary matches set to start at 6:30 p.m. and the main event featuring the Bulldogs and Cardinal will get underway at 7:15 p.m.

Fresno State ranks No. 5 in attendance in 2017-18
After making its return to the Valley in 2017-18, Fresno State Wrestling received a warm welcome as the Bulldogs ranked No. 5 in the nation in Division I in attendance with an average of 4,566 fans for each of the six home duals.

Only passed by Big Ten programs Iowa, Penn State, Ohio State and Rutgers, the 'Dogs had at least 3,700 Red Wave supporters at all six home duals and over 4,000 at four of the six duals. The home opener against No. 14 Illinois was attended by 6,840 people at the Save Mart Center for the third-largest attended dual in Fresno State program history.

Joe Colon earns bronze at 2018 World Championships
Fresno State Wrestling volunteer assistant coach and Valley Regional Training Center athlete Joe Colon earned a bronze medal at the 2018 World Wrestling Championships on Oct. 21.

Competing at 61 kg./134 lbs., Colon went 3-1 in the tournament on his way to earning a spot on the podium. Facing No. 5 seed Mohammadbagher Yakhkeshi of Iran for bronze, Colon used a takedown and a number of gut wrenches to close out the match.

Pledge for Pins
Pledges for pins is designed to help support the Fresno State Wrestling Program. Proceeds will benefit the Fresno State Wrestling Fund for Excellence along with a portion contributing to the Valley Regional Training Center -- a nonprofit organization that supports Fresno State Wrestling.

It works like this, for example, if you pledge $5 per pin and the team accumulates 40 pins during the season, your pledge will be $200. Throughout the season, pins and pledges will be recorded and a letter will be mailed with your pledge amount and payment information.

Levels of Pledges
Cooper - $1-10
Bronze - $11-20
Silver - $21-49
Gold - $50 & Up

"Just the Ticket to Build Our Community" – The Bulldog Scholarship Fund gives Bulldog alumni, fans and friends the opportunity to support Fresno State Athletics and the student-athletes who inspire them. For information about how you can support the Bulldog Scholarship Fund, please visit www.bulldogscholarshipfund.com or call 559-278-7160.

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