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THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE OF THE WILKES UNIVERSITY COLONELS WILKES UNIVERSITY COLONELS

Steve Finkernagel

Men's Wrestling 12/28/2014 4:58:00 PM

Rea Wins 125-Pound Crown as Three Colonels Earn Top Four Finishes at the Wilkes Open

(Full Results)

Rea Wins 125-Pound Crown as Three Colonels Earn Top Four Finishes at the Wilkes Open

WILKES-BARRE – Guesseppe Rea (Stroudsburg, PA/Stroudsburg) led three Wilkes University top four finishers claiming the title at 125-pounds at the 82^nd annual Wilkes Open held in the Marts Center Sunday afternoon.

Rea went a perfect 4-0 on the day to earn his first Wilkes Open championship moving to 18-1 on the season. He began the day with a 15-0 technical fall over Danny Murray of Nassau Community College before a 12-8 decision over Binghamton's Joe Nelson in the quarterfinals. Rea then used a 4-1 semifinal victory over Joe Haas of Division II Bloomsburg to reach the championship bout.

From there, Rea posted a 6-4 decision win over UNC's Tyrone Klump in the finals. After taking a 2-0 lead with an early takedown, Rea led 4-3 late in the third period before another takedown and riding time allowed him to hold on to the two-point victory. With the victory, Rea became the first Colonel to win a Wilkes Open title since 2012 when Kris Krawchuk (Slatington, PA/Northern Lehigh) bested teammate Mark Hartenstine (Easton, PA/Easton) 4-2 to claim the 149-pound title.

At 133-pounds, rookie Matthew Grossmann (Lancaster, PA/Manheim Township) was the second Colonel to reach the finals. He started the day with a 13-0 major decision over Slippery Rock's Jeff Hernandez before pinning Sacred Hearts' Robert O'Neil in 1:46 in the second round. Grossmann added an 8-3 decision over Joe Russ of Nassau in the quarterfinals and a hard-fought 4-3 win against NYU's Nathan Pike in the semifinals to reach the championship bout.

In the finals, Grossmann fell 4-0 against Jon Mele of Division I Lehigh to settle for second place in his first showing at the Open.

Pankil Chander (Cedarhurst, NY/Lawrence) was the final top four finisher for Wilkes claiming fourth place at 141-pounds. After an 11-4 decision win in the opening round, Chander fell to eventual second-place finisher Brandon Lapi of Division I Buffalo in the quarterfinals. He then wrestled back in the consolation bracket using two decision wins and a pin to reach the third place bout. Chander would settle for fourth dropping a 9-6 decision to Virginia Tech's Gerald Ronnau.

Wilkes travels to Hackettstown, NJ on Monday, January 5^th for a dual match with Centenary College at 7:00 p.m.

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