Hofstra’s Michael Hughes edged out of EIWA title
Michael Hughes of Hofstra, right, wins his match by pinning Sean O'Malley of Drexel in the 285 pound weight class during the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association Championships at the David S. Mack Sports Complex on Saturday, March 3, 2018. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
It was a good-news, bad-news weekend for Hofstra’s Michael Hughes.
The good news is the Pride’s 285-pound wrestler qualified for the NCAA Division I championships in Cleveland from March 15-17.
The bad news for the top-seeded Hughes is that he lost a tough match, 2-1, after the second tie-break period in the 285-pound final of the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) championships at Hofstra on Sunday against Jordan Wood of Lehigh.
Wood was one of Lehigh’s five individual champions as the Mountain Hawks registered 164.5 team points and won the EIWA team title, halting Cornell’s run of 11 straight EIWA crowns. The Big Red had 146 points. Hofstra was 13th out of 16 teams with 37 points, which mostly came from Hughes.
“I am definitely proud of my weekend,” said the former Smithtown West standout, who is now 34-3 this season with a nation-best 18 pins. “[Wood] is a good wrestler and he earned that one so I don’t want to say I lost it. But I could have wrestled a little better.”
Neither wrestler registered a takedown, but both earned a point for an escape as the score was tied at 1 after regulation. After a scoreless one-minute, sudden-victory period, Wood was able to escape in the first 30-second, tie-break period. However, the Pride’s redshirt senior could not get free of the Lehigh sophomore in the second tie-break.
Hughes had his 16-match win streak snapped and lost for the first time since Jan. 2 when he was beaten by Duke’s Jacob Kasper.
“It was one of those things,” Hughes said. “I had my opportunities, I just slipped on them.”
Hughes wasn’t the only local product who advanced to the final. Commack product Mike D’Angelo was the top seed at 157 for Princeton. He rallied from a 3-1 deficit and tied the score at 3 in the third period against Columbia’s Markus Scheidel.
However, Scheidel was awarded a point for 1:17 of riding time and defeated D’Angelo, 4-3. Still, D’Angelo and Hughes both qualified for the NCAA championships.
“Yes, it would have been nice to be [on the No. 1 spot] on the awards podium, but the main goal . . . was to get to nationals,” Hughes said. “That’s where I want to be.”
Piccininni first, Rasheed second. Ward Melville grad and Oklahoma State’s Nick Piccininni pinned West Virginia’s Zeke Moisey in 1:11 to win the 125-pound class at the Big 12 championships in Tulsa, Okla. Also, former Longwood standout Shakur Rasheed, a 197-pounder at Penn State, lost an 8-4 decision in the Big 10 final against Ohio State’s Kollin Moore in East Lansing, Mich.
