Cal Poly to Host Trio of Weekend Duals in Mott Athletics Center
11/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
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CAL BAPTIST | NORTHWESTERN | RUTGERS
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. -- Coming off solid performances in its first three dual meets of the season, the Cal Poly wrestling team wrestles three more times this weekend, all in the Mott Athletics Center.
First-year head coach Jon Sioredas' Mustangs will host Cal Baptist on Saturday at noon and Northwestern at 2 p.m. The next day, Cal Poly hosts No. 14 Rutgers at noon.
The Mustangs opened their season with a 36-7 victory over San Francisco State outdoors in the University Union plaza last Thursday, then moved indoors and upset No. 27 Indiana 19-18. The dual meet ended in an 18-18 draw and Cal Poly was awarded the win based on criteria, having won six matches to Indiana's four.
Cal Poly traveled north last Saturday and fell 21-9 to No. 12 Stanford. The Pac-12 dual meet was held outdoors, just the second to be held on The Farm, at Football Fan Fest prior to the Stan-ford football game versus Oregon State.
Colt Shorts was the lone Mustang to win each of his three matches. The senior from Canonsburg, Penn., earned a major decision and a pair of one-point decisions to help Cal Poly to the 2-1 start.
Winning two of three matches were sophomore Yoshito Funakoshi at 133 pounds, junior Colton Schilling (pictured above) at 141, 197-pound senior J.T. Goodwin and junior 285-pounder Spencer Empey.
Cal Baptist opened its season with a 29-12 loss against CSU Bakersfield. Under sixth-year head coach Lennie Zalesky, the Lancers have posted a 46-28-1 in duals.
Last year, the Lancers went 7-3 and were a top-10 team in the NCAA Division II rankings most of the year. Five of Zalesky's wrestlers advanced to the nationals and four earned All-American awards, with heavyweight Joe Fagiano winning the program's first NCAA title.
Zalesky was head coach at UC Davis for nine seasons before the school dropped the sport prior to the 2010-11 season.
Cal Poly and Cal Baptist are even at 2-2 in the series. They did not meet last year.
Under first-year head coach Matt Storniolo, Northwestern kicked off its season with a 47-3 win over University of Chicago and 41-0 against North Central College last weekend.
The Wildcat roster has just two seniors and one junior. The two teams met once before, at the Windy City Duals in Evanston, IL, Northwestern winning 38-12.
Rutgers opens its 2016-17 schedule with three matches in California, visiting CSU Bakersfield to wrestle the Roadrunners and San Francisco State on Friday before coming to Cal Poly on Sunday.
Five Scarlet Knights are ranked by InterMat, led by Anthony Ashnault, ranked No. 3 at 141 pounds, and Richie Lewis, ranked No. 6 at 157. Ashnault is a two-time NCAA All-American with fourth- and eight-place finishes the last two years while Lewis was an NCAA qualifier last year.
Other ranked Rutgers wrestlers include Ken Theobold, ranked No. 13 at 149 pounds, Tyson Dippery, 15th at 133, and Nicholas Gravina, 15th at 184.
Tenth-year head coach Scott Goodale has produced four NCAA All-Americans over the last three seasons and a 141-50-1 dual meet record during his first nine years at the helm of the Scarlet Knights.
Cal Poly beat Rutgers 24-22 in the only previous meeting between the two schools at the NWCA National Duals in Piscataway, N.J., on Feb. 11, 2012.
